Dust and Blood
by JazzChicken
Summary: Jaune Arc has entered Beacon Academy with a forged transcript and a bloody past. Becoming a hunter is the last thing he's planning to do. No, Jaune has his sights set on another goal. But with terrorists, criminals, teachers, and annoying do-gooders all around Remnant will never be the same.
1. Welcome to Beacon

Beacon was a school that produced the best. Only the strongest of combat students were considered for the prestigious academy. Thankfully strength of a stomach was not a prerequisite, thought Jaune as he emptied the last of his stomach contents into a trash can. He hoped the upchucking would not be a defining moment of his time here. Although the attractive blond he puked on would probably be someone to avoid. It wasn't his fault that his family suffered from air sickness.

Looking up from the can as his stomach settled, Jaune took in where he was. The school was massive and benefited from intricate architectural design with cutting edge training equipment to help the students become effective grim killers. Most students would feel exhilarated entering the school for the first time as their goal of becoming hunters or huntresses was close at hand, but these students were supposed to be here. Jaune saw himself entering the lion's den with only some forged documents standing between him and expulsion, or worse. He had no idea how to fight grim, dual, or a single thing about how to talk to kids his age. Taking a breath he steeled his resolve and stomach for what lay ahead of him. He had come too far and sacrificed too much to let little details like that stop him from achieving his goals.

An explosion shook him from his thoughts. Looking towards the sound he saw a slightly singed girl clad in a white dress matching her pure white hair berating a younger looking girl wearing a black dress accented by red trim. He recognized the white one, she was Weiss Scheene , heiress of the SDC. "She could make quite the ally," he mused to himself.

Jaune approached the two but delayed as a girl with a black hair bow stepped in and seemingly ended the argument, as Scheene walked away in a huff. He looked at the red girl a bit closer. Something about her seemed a bit familiar. She appeared a bit saddened still knocked down by the explosion. He figured talking to her wouldn't hurt. Besides as his mother used to say, "strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." Man, he hadn't seen his mother in a long time.

"Need some help?" he asked putting his hand out. Ruby looked up to see a boy with messy blond hair dressed in jeans, combat boots , white shirt, black leather jacket, and a scabbard attached to his hip.

"Thanks," she said in a tiny voice appropriate for her. "I'm Ruby"

"Jaune Arc, short sweet and the ladies love it" he said with a stupid grin plastered on his face as he pulled her up.

"Do they?" Ruby asked not buying it in the slightest.

"W-well they will" Damn. He couldn't even convince a little girl he was cool.

"Wait. Aren't you _Vomit Boy_?" asked Ruby

So much for that not sticking. "How would you like it if I called you crater face?"Jaune asked.

"That was an accident." Ruby flatly protested.

He followed her for a few more awkward steps before she suddenly stopped. "Soooo check this out," she said, opening up the biggest scythe he had ever seen. In fact, he'd actually never seen one before, but it was still larger than he'd ever imagined. _How did such as small cute girl wield such a massive implement of death_. "Wow! That thing is awesome looking," he finally said.

"Yeah. It's my baby. It's also a high impact sniper rifle." She eyed her weapon with a slightly evil grin that reminded him of someone.

"So is it chambered for 308 or 50 cal?" He knew a bit about sniper rifles, just not enough to figure the weapon's caliber on site.

Ruby smiled at his interest in her weapon. "50. Kick back helps me move and it really helps with grim. So what do you have?" She hoped it was a sniper rifle, a bazooka, nun-chuck Gatling guns, knifle or some other new and exciting weapon. To her disappointment Jaune pulled out a plain sword and turned his scabbard into a shield.

"Yeah, not the greatest," he admitted noticing the reaction on her face. "I just got it. I really have no idea how to use them."

"What do you mean they're new?"

 _Damn it_. An absentminded comment like that could really screw him. "Had mine stolen when I arrived in the city." A lie-something not unfamiliar to him.

"Criminals are the worst! When we're finally hunters we'll stop that kinda of stuff. We'll stop grim too. And we'll be awesome." Jaune could hear the innocence in those words.

"Sure Ruby," he said, not wanting to push the issue and arouse her curiosity about his weaponry. He changed the subject. "So where are we going anyways?"

Ruby gave him an odd glance. "I don't know; I was following you."

* * *

Exactly a month before Jaune was puking in a trash can in Beacon it had been a cold and rainy night on the docks. Mark "Shark-Face" Menzer was looking upon a crate of automatic rifles left there by one of his contacts, and Jaune was looking at his target. Shark-face was a crime lord from Minstrel who was making a big push into Vale.

Known for his ruthlessness, Shark-Face routinely lit his rivals on fire with his hand held flame thrower to get jobs done. From his perch atop the crates lining the dark warehouse Jaune counted a dozen guards around the place, each armed with small arms and bladed weapons. Upon entering the building he counted a few additional sentries posted outside.

 _It would be a quick task tonight_.

Drawing his handgun and knife he dropped down, crushing a guard under him. Before the room of criminals could turn to face him, he scored three head shots, confirming his sense that the henchmen lacked aura.

"The fuck?" Shark-Face thrashed his head around. "Kill that bastard!" he screamed to the remaining men.

Jaune rolled his eyes as he swiftly jumped behind a metal shipping container. _Yeah no shit, kill him_ , he thought to himself.

The remaining henchmen broke into two groups of four, each maneuvering around either side of the large shipping container. Jaune calmly put away his gun and took out a grenade from his jacket. He tossed it to the side of the container farthest from himself. He then ducked around the closest edge of the container to find himself inches from a gun pointed at his head.

Swifter than the trigger pull he used his freehand to shift the barrel to the left and used his other hand to shove his blade into the man's throat. At that moment the four other henchmen on the far side stepped around the edge of the crate only to step into the blast of the grenade killing the entire group in one blast.

The three remaining henchmen opened up on their assailant. Jaune used the man who was still impaled on his knife as a shield. He could feel the shock of the rounds slamming into the body's limp flesh. Lightning quick, he unleashed his own gun and fired three shots in cool, even succession, then shrugged the no longer useful human shield onto the ground next to his dead comrades.

Turning, he watched Shark-Face advancing on him with his flame thrower. "You going to burn for this you little shit!" Jaune fired a round at Shark-Face's temple only to witness it bounce off harmlessly. An evil smile spread across upon Shark-Face lips. "Aura kid".

 _Didn't one need a soul to have Aura_?

At that moment the outside sentries entered the warehouse. Jaune had prepared for this as the henchmen tripped a bomb he had set earlier while infiltrating the building. It was powerful enough to shake the structure and distract Shark-Face for a few seconds in the process. It was all Jaune needed.

He taped the end of his pistol and knife handles against each other and when he pulled them apart a wire connected them. Jaune quickly closed the distance between himself and his opponent. He brought the wire under Shark-Face's flamer arm and swiftly pulled it up to his neck. Stepping forward and pulling, he effectively cut of Shark- face's oxygen and prevented him from aiming his flamethrower in Jaune's direction.

Jaune found suffocating an enemy that manipulated aura to protect themselves an effective means of killing for even the hardiest of enemies. Aura could stave off kinetic energy, but Jaune had found in his years of fight that moving an opponent's body against themselves was the best way to negate the advantages of aura.

With a final twitch Shark-Face was no more. Another mission accomplished.

 _Damn, I'm good_ , thought Jaune.

Just then, Jaune's scroll unexpectedly went off as if somehow to punish him for the thought. Jaune leapt up and uttered a scream unbefitting a guy as macho as him. In the sudden silence, he looked around to see if anyone witnessed the embarrassing moment. _Nope, just a bunch dead guys_.

Looking down at his scroll Jaune saw it was a reminder he had set earlier. The words "Beacon paperwork due," flashed across the screen.

"Ah man, that's what I forgot to do this week." _Shit_. "Going to have to pay a fortune to get a forger at this hour," Jaune cursed under his breath.

As good as he was at killing for money he had some serious issues with a lot of stuff. Heck, on his way here he needed to go back for his weapons after remembering he had forgotten them at the safe.

Walking back to his ride he scrolled through his contacts looking for a forger that fit the bill. This job at Beacon had been a long time in the making and if the intel was good he could put this life behind him. The thought incited a sudden nervousness in him. Deep cover infiltrations weren't his best skill and going in as a student would have quite a few complications to contend with.

Jaune hadn't really been in school for a long time, and after many years of killing, his social skills weren't exactly stellar either. Although to get to Amber he would pretend to be General Ironwood if that's what it took. Hell, to get to her he would tear Vale apart brick by brick if he had to.

* * *

Jaune walked over to his sleeping bag. He'd just finished brushing his teeth and changing into his blue bunny onezee pajamas. He took stock of the events of the day.

Lost his lunch.

Made a new friend ( _Ruby was her name?)_

Got lost.

Found were to go.

Listened to a dumb speech from the headmaster about potential, and most interestingly, heard Weiss say something about "cute boys" and point to him.

Maybe he could play it cool and seduce the heiress. On the other hand his romance experience was zilch (not for lack of trying) and his ability to "play it cool" was not an ability he had. Still, he considered it might be worth a shot. Given his past experiences, what did he really have to lose.

Jaune laid his head down on his sleeping bag. He was lying in an auditorium surrounded by the first year students. For some reason unknown to him, they were sleeping there for the night instead of the dorms. The rooms had to have been set up so why sleep out here, he wondered.

From the architectural plans he had stolen from an archive the dorms appeared to be quite large. Compared to the amount of students present, there weren't enough individual rooms for them. All that pointed to some kind of group based set up. This unnerved him a bit. He would have to deal with the added complication of a small group of people living with him. Not really something he wanted on this already complicated mission.

He lay awake lost in thought, thinking about this assignment. Intel said Amber frequented the hunter academies for some unknown reason. Amber had been in the Vaco academy last and an intercepted message had confirmed her heading towards Vale. He didn't know for sure if she was here but he couldn't pass up an opportunity as promising as this. In fact he wondered if he had jumped into this a bit too hastily. He never had successfully done a serious deep cover job. Well there was that time he pretended to be an arms dealer, but that had ended with him in a trash compactor. In retrospect that joke about the mobster's wife hadn't been a good idea.

Hours passed as he lay awake lost in contemplation. The vibrations of the silent alarm on his scroll pulled him from his thoughts. He checked the room for any students still awake. Finding none he decided it was time to go to work.

He tried to exit his sleeping bag quietly. Unfortunately, though, he got tripped up and fell on his face. The commotion woke up the student next to him. A young man groggily looked up at Jaune.

"Shut up man" the disturbed sleeper murmured. With that he fell back asleep.

 _Well that was embarrassing_ , Jaune thought, cursing himself for the slip up. Little moments like that really could get him killed in his business; how he'd gotten by thus far baffled him. Unfortunately, despite his precision killing, he never seemed to be able to overcome his awkwardness and clumsiness. Some days he wondered if his semblance was being unlucky. He once heard of a guy like that- Hawk, or something like that.

He looked around to see if any other students had been roused by his actions. Seeing none he quietly tipped toed over to the auditorium doors. Giving it a small push he found it to be locked. Pulling out a lock pick from his pajama pockets he proceeded to pick the lock until he heard a click. He pushed again be to no avail. He most have unlocked it the click was a tell tale sound of the bolt sliding. Upon closer inspection he found the door to be a pull door.

One embarrassed lock picking later he found himself outside, on the main campus. He moved silently across it, avoiding light. Closer to his goal he noticed armed guards patrolling and cameras placed sporadically. Honestly he was surprised there weren't more guards around and he identified quite a few strategic blind spots in the cameras.

Dodging the sparse amount of security on campus he found himself at his goal. The CCT tower. It was the hub of all wireless communications in Vale. Honestly this had been stupidly easy so far. This right here was Vales only life line to the other nation, one decent virus could cripple the country for weeks. Yeah there were quite a few wannabe hunters around but they were all asleep. Only a crappy security system and a few dozen guards around so far. He hoped the inside of the tower was just as insecure.

He moved around back to the rear of the tower. According to the stolen plans there was an electrical panel that controlled some secondary systems. Nothing important to communications, but the lights on the first floor was what he wanted. Locating the panel he opened it to find it to be exactly what he needed. Flipping the switch he smirked as the lights went out.

He stealthily moved to the front entrance to see a guard on alert. Jaune picked up a rock from the landscape and threw it, hitting a lamp post in the distance. The metallic sound caused the guard to walk off a bit from his post to investigate. Jaune took the opportunity to slipped past the guard and enter the tower.

He entered to see about five guards all crammed around a panel. "Just keep switching it on and off it might do it" said a one of the guards.

"Why the hell would that help Jerry you idiot" said the guard closest to the panel, clearly frustrated by the issue.

Jaune smiled at his luck and crept into an elevator in the room. Inside the elevator he found the button for the comms room and pressed it. As the elevator went to its destination Jaune relaxed a bit.

The elevator opened to reveal a room full of consoles used by students to make calls to people outside Vale. Calls from scrolls were also intercepted and logged in this tower. Jaune couldn't have a nosey headmaster looking to see the kind of unsavory people he called. Approaching a console he inserted a USB drive into it. The drive uploaded a program that allowed for his scroll to securely make calls.

As soon as it loaded Jaune pulled up his scroll and made a call. It rang for a few seconds before someone on the other end picked up.

"I'm in Roman, all is going as planned"


	2. Ice Cream and Assasins

_This is not good, not good at all_.

He had no idea what locker he had put his weapons in. The paper work he was given said locker 636 but he couldn't even count that high. _Why did this have to happen to me today._

He was now just wandering the armory/locker area hoping to find it. It was about an hour before the students needed to report to the cliffs on the edge of the school for his initiation. Worse still was the fact that he had heard rumors confirming the formation of teams. He really hoped they were false.

He wandered around so more, noticing Ruby talking to the blonde he vomited on. He decided to avoid them in an attempt to keep "vomit boy" from resurfacing. Then he noticed farther down, there was Weiss talking to another girl. _Well, she did say I was cute and she would make a good partner._

Jaune started to walk towards them but paused. He was really awkward with this sort of stuff. What should he say to open? Remembering Torchwood's confidence and charm he figured he'd hide his awkwardness with forced confidence. _Yeah, women love confidence_.

"Hello ladies" Jaune said with a smile

"Ugh, you again" Weiss rolled his eyes.

 _Playing hard to get I see._ "Yes me," he bowed, "Jaune Arc."

The girl Weiss was talking to stepped closer to him. "Nice to meet you Jaune" she said with a wave.

"Yeah yeah. So Weiss couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me last night." Weiss groaned and buried his face in his palms.

Oblivious to the gesture, Jaune nevertheless continued. "I heard that we will be having teams and I was thinking we'd make a good one. What do you say?"

The other girl butted in. "Actually, I think the teams are comprised of four students each so…."

Jaune finally looked at the other girls.. She was gorgeous; she had long red hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her form-fitting armor that made her look like a Spartan, which was appropriate for her muscular body. _OK, this is getting ridiculous. It's like every student here is a model._

"Well hello beautiful, play your cards right and you could end up on the winning team" he said stepping towards her.

Weiss stepped between them and pushed him back "Umm…Jaune was it? Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"

"Not the slightest clue" he answered honestly.

"This is Pyrrha." Weiss answer.

"Hello again" The girl he now knew as Pyrrha said with another smile and wave.

Weiss continued "Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum"

"Never heard of it" on the other hand she did seem slightly familiar to him.

Weiss let out a noise of disgust at him lack of knowledge. "She won the Minstrel Regional Tournaments four years in a row, a new record."

He was still drawing a blank. "The what?" He really never watched that kinda thing, too busy killing people he supposed.

Weiss was pissed. This boy was a moron. "She's on the cover of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmellow Flakes box" She was practically yelling at Jaune now.

Now that rang a bell, he loved that cereal. He could remember countless hours spent at safe houses eating the stuff while watching cartoons.

"Wow, that was you? They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters" and he knew enough cartoons to know she was a star athlete.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool." Pyrrha responded with an awkward grin. Then she frowned," Sadly they're not very good for you."

"Now, knowing that do you really think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?" Weiss asked with a smug grin.

For a second Jaune almost slouched and answered honestly. How could he compete with someone like that? But he stopped and straightened up. _Confidence. Confidence. Confidence_.

"Well knowing that I'm sorry to say I think Pyrrha just took your spot on team Jaune. But if you're really good I might still be able to squeeze you in Weiss." Jaune said with a smile and all the bravado he could muster. The temperature of the room seemed to stop as Weiss looked at Jaune with a chilling glare. The temperature rose again as Pyrrha giggled a bit at Jaune's antics.

He turned to leave dramatically to cement his moment of social grace. _This is going great_. And with that thought he proceeded to trip over a small bench in the changing room and land on his face.

The whole room laughed as he lay on the ground. "See you later Jaune" Pyrrha said as she walked by and smile. _Yeah, the Jaune Arc luck had to kick in some time_.

Ruby and the blonde walked by as he was picking himself up "Good job lady killer" the blonde said as she passed

 _I'm just going to go find my weapons now_

* * *

He found himself at the cliffs on some sort of pressure plate along a line of fellow students. The headmaster, Ozpin, was before them with some other female teacher.

"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be tested in the Emerald Forest."

The other teacher spoke up "Now you may have heard about the assignment of teams. Let me put your speculation to rest, you will be assigned a partner today" she said almost ominously

Jaune heard a pitiful "what" from down the line from Ruby.

The headmaster continued "Your teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it would serve you well to be paired with someone you work well with." Ruby groaned

"That being said your partner will be the first person you make eye contact with and will be your partner for the next four years."

"What" Jaune and Ruby both exclaimed simultaneously. _With this crappy system I could end up with any-body I'm going to get screwed on this._

"Once you reach your partner you will head to the northern sector. You will encounter resistance, destroy it or you will die." Thinking about it Jaune had never actually seen a grim before. _It'll be fine I've handled worse before... probably._

"You will proceed up the path to find a temple. There you will find relics, each pair most choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will be monitored and graded but we will not intervene." How were they getting off the cliff, Juane wondered.

The headmaster finished "Any question?"

Juane raised his hand. "Yeah, ummm, sir?"

Ozpin ignored him. "Good, now take your position."

Everyone took a pose on their pressure plate. _Ummm….What's happening._

A student was throwing high into the air and over the cliff, ejected by the pressure plate. _Well that answered his first question. New much more important question just came up._

"Sir ummm… how are we landing? Are you picking us up or something?" Jaune asked a bit frantically.

The headmaster sipped some coffee. "No you'll be falling."

"Oh…I think I missed the parachute hand out."

"No"

 _Oh this was not gooooooooooooooo-_

* * *

He crashed into a stall selling vegetables. Stars danced in Jaune's vision as the angry shop keeper yelled at him. _Today is not so going great_. It was days like these that really made him reevaluate his life choices.

He was 14 years old and currently employed by a Roman Tourchwich. Jaune had been working for Roman for about half a year doing odd jobs such as listening for gossip on the streets, pick pocketing, looking out for the bigger guys, and today a courier for a valuable package. How did he know it was important? Well someone was trying to kill him for it.

A few minutes ago he had been walking the street with his package in his backpack. He looked like an average school child, not worth being stopped by any lawman, too bad that the man hunting him was an assassin. The assassin had been tailing him for a bit before Jaune had noticed him. To his horror Jaune recognized him as Marcus Black, one of the most infamous assassins in Remnant. Jaune had once seen him at a safe house Roman owned. A few hours later a Huntress working with the police died.

When Jaune recognized him he bolted into the busy market district hoping to lose him. In his haste to escape he didn't watch where he was going almost crashed into someone. He jumped to the side to avoid the person but miscalculated a bit and that's how he found himself currently in the vegetable stall.

He stood up and saw Black walking towards him with a menacing smile. Black would take his sweet time killing this kid. It was easy job, kill a courier and steal some papers off his dead body. In all honestly Marcus had expected an experienced member of Roman's organization, but he didn't really give a shit if he had to kill some kid.

Jaune was running again, fear clouded his sense and he ran with no direction in mind. He knew this was probably his end as he ran into back alley hoping to lose Black. When he saw the wall that blocked his only way forward he knew it really was his end.

He turned to see Black blocking his only escape. "What do you want?" Juane screamed, fear dripping from every word. _Maybe he just wants the package_.

"Your life kid"

Jaune had two options in this situation, fight or die.

The only thing Jaune had as a weapon was a small knife in his pocket. _Got to catch him by surprise._ Jaune bum rushed the assassin. Black casually walked towards the charging pip-squeak and landed a kick into Jaune's ribs. The force of the kick propelled Jaune into an old metal trash can full of leftovers from a noodle shop and construction project.

Juane had a great view of the sky from his position on the ground. _Ok, covered in rotting food, broken glass in my back, mostly likely broken- aahhhh-check that definitely broken ribs. I think I'm going to die in this alley._ He desperately looked around to see if he could escape his fate. His eyes locked on what could be his salvation. _All I've got right now._

Black approached the injured kid with the intent to end him. To his amusement the kid stood up with a trash can lid as a shield. This kid was absolutely hilarious. He ripped it from the Jaune's hand and swiftly backhanded him. Jaune staggered at the hit. For a second it looked like he was going to fall back down. Steeling himself he rose into a fight stance. He was going to die, but he was going to die fighting.

"You just don't when to quit" Black wondered how much it would take to break Jaune.

"I could do this all day" the exhaustion and pain was evident in Jaune's voice. A sadistic grin appeared on Black's face.

The haymaker that followed brought Jaune to the ground. He tasted blood in his mouth as pain radiated through his body. Tears rolled down his face. He had failed. The life of crime was all for nothing. _I'm sorry Mom and Dad. I did the best I could. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. - Mary._

 **No.**

He would survive.

He would set things right.

He would kill this excuse for a human.

Black pulled out his gun. It was time to end this little shit.

Jaune's hand closed around some discarded wire.

He turned away to gain some distance from Jaune. Didn't want to get blood on his clothing, took forever to get it out.

Jaune saw his opportunity. In a flash the pocket knife was in his hand.

Black dropped his gun as he felt an explosion of agonizing pain in his leg. He fell to his knee. A knife was embedded in the back of his other knee. Black was shocked. He was the best killer in Remnant and this little fucker had caught him with his aura down. The wire was wrapped around his throat. He tried to rise and shake off the boy.

Jaune saw Black try to rise but he kicked out Blacks other knee. He put his foot into Black's back to gain leverage and pulled with all his might. Black struggled like a man possessed, trying to shake off the young Arc. Each knew that whoever failed in their task would die in this dirty alley.

Blacks struggled less and less as Jaune continued to pull. Eventually the struggles stopped completely. Jaune looked at the limp body of the man in his clutches. He should kill him. Black was an animal that killed without remorse. Juane despised assassins, they stole lives, ruined family and friends all for a paycheck. What kind of person could do that and live with themselves. He hated Black but if he killed him he would be just the same animal. He may do some illegal stuff but killing was a line he refused to cross.

Jaune released the unconscious assassin from his grip, causing him to fall limply to the ground. He'd let him live, but he wasn't above robbing him. Rummaging through Black's pockets he found good amount of lien, decent sized knife, a grenade, and, oh yeah, Jaune was defiantly taking his gun. He started to leave the alley but something nagged him. If he left Black he would continue to kill, but Jaune refused to sully his hand with the blood of another. He pondered this moral dilemma for a few seconds until a satisfying conclusion was reached in his mind. Jaune picked up a brick from the spilled trash. Black would have a hard time killing people with broken knee caps.

Jaune walk out of the alley onto the streets, kicking his make-shift shield. _I now hate shields_. He was bloody and broken but he had emerged victorious. But he really needed a doctor soon. He groaned knowing the he would need to drop off the package first. Un-slinging his back-pack he was shocked to find it unzipped and empty. _Crap,what am I going to tell Roman._

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of tape ripping. Turning to look he was surprised to see a girl opening the package. She was his height but appeared a bit older, and was a mismatch of brown and pink including her eyes and weirdly enough had a parasol.

"ummm… that's mine, can I please have it back." Jaune hoped she would just hand it over. She didn't really strike him as some master criminal that had lifted the package off him.

The girl ignored him and finished ripping off the tape of the package. A small amount of ice dust fell onto the street and the girl pulled out a tub of Neapolitan Ice-cream, of all things. Jaune was shocked. _All this over Roman's dessert._ Well he still needed it if he wanted to keep his job. After taking out one of Remnant's worst he wasn't letting this girl rob him.

"Alright, I don't want to hurt you, but I need that. As right in now." He tried to use his most serious voice. Sadly his body betrayed him and his voice cracked, undercutting his intended voice.

The girl smiled, then flipped him the bird.

 _Alright_ , _guess I'm just going to have to take it_.

Jaune stepped towards her to take back his ice cream. He figured he'd just grab the dessert, push her over, and walk off. That felt kinda dirty, but she did steal from him. As he stepped up she grinned just like Black. _This may be a mistake_.

She delivered a savage kick to Jaune's head. He didn't even feel himself hitting the pavement.

* * *

Jaune felt like crap. The initiation had gone terribly. First he had only survived the jump because of Pyrrha. He then proceeded to lead them into a cave with a huge grimm. It was the first grim he had ever encountered and it scared the hell out of him. He somehow found himself hanging on to the grimm for dear life screaming like a little girl, much to his embarrassment. Then he got flung across the forest. He then linked up with other students including Ruby. Then he spent of the rest of the initiation being totally useless to the fight. The other students brought an ungodly amount of firepower to bear against the grimm. He couldn't even land a hit with his sword and shield _. I hate shields_. It was nice to have Pyrrha as his partner but he hated being the damsel in distress for most of the initiation.

Thinking back on the grimm he suddenly had a newfound respect for Hunters. Jaune had never seen one before in his career as an assassin. For the most part Jaune had relied on speed and procession to kill his foes, breaking joints and strangling them to negate their aura. If those methods failed he relied on less direct methods such as explosives, poison, high powered rifles, and once in awhile a toaster. The grimm appeared to only be able to be killed with overwhelming force instead of his preferred methods. Sure if he had to deal with a bunch of aura-less targets he could use a LMG or some other heavy weapon, but right now he had a tooth pick and a sheet of metal to work with. This was because he had thought it was a hunter-like weapon and his preferred pistol/knife combo was only good for killing people, thus bringing unwanted attention. Now thought he was kinda screwed on weapons.

Right now he was standing with the rest of the students to find out who would be assigned to what teams. He knew he would have Pyrrha on his team and that worked great. She was easy on eyes and too polite to really inquire about him much. He looked over at some other students that had fought with him during the initiation. The one guy, Ren, seemed cool as ice. Ruby had surprised him in the fight. She took command at kicked some serious ass. The attractive blond he had vomited on was also there. He had learned name was Yang and was somehow Ruby's sister. Then there was Nora, he really was wondering if she had snorted cocaine before the fight. But seeing her bouncing around Ren he figured she was just naturally like that. He spotted Weiss and waved towards her. She turned her nose up to him. _Yeah, seducing her, not going to happen_. Lastly there was the girl with the black bow. He had gotten a closer look and recognized there was an open contract from the White Fang on her. It was for alive and he didn't really do that sort of thing. Hadn't caught her name yet thought.

They all seemed to be good enough, well actually better than him. So he really didn't care who he got assigned as long as he wasn't the leader. As a leader his team would look at him for leadership and more heavily scrutinize him. In addition he would have to spend to more time with them instead of searching for Amber. Thankfully he really just proved he sucked as a hunter, so there was that silver lining in his failure.

The headmaster had just finished announcing announcing some other team composition. He then proceed to pull up a screen showing Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora. Ozpin then named of the members of the team.

 _Well Ren seems cool, I guess. No idea how to handle Nora thought. They're going to put Pyrrha in charge, so really not my problem._

"Lead by Jaune Arc" finished Ozpin.

 _Uh-oh_

* * *

 ** _Author Note: I have no idea what to do for Jaune's Semblance or pairing so feel free to toss some ideas around in the reviews. Might do a poll later. Thanks for the support._**


	3. Aches and Pains

In a hospital in Vale fourteen year old Jaune woke to the sound of a heart monitor and the dull ache of pain across his body. Looking around he found himself in a hospital bed with a blood pressure cuff on his bicep and a pulse-reader on his finger. _How did I get here?_ The last thing he remembered was that ice-cream thief kicking him in the face. _Felt like a truck hit me though._ While he remembered the incident with the assassin and the thief he didn't have a clue how he had arrived here or the passage of time.

While still pondering his predicament the door opened and a teenage girl in green scrubs entered. "Oh you're awake. How are you feeling?" She asked, a slight lisp accenting her speech thanks to a pair of braces wrapped around her teeth. As she walked towards a vital monitor near him he noticed the name tag on her baggy uniform said Sam.

"Stiff, my jaw and ribs hurt nurse."

She turned towards him to answer "Oh, I'm not a nurse. I'm just a tech here at the hospital. My first week actually." He cringed as spittle landed on his face. Out of politeness he resisted the urge to wipe his face in front of her; his parents had instilled that trait as very important for a young man. _Not polite enough to not run away from a loving family and live a life of crime though._ "The pain is normal I'm afraid. The medics found you on the side walk passed out about an hour ago, what happened?"

"Fall."

"But, you were cut up by glass."

"Fell on glass."He didn't need the police investigating his assault otherwise they may find out a little too much about him. And besides explaining how breaking a man's knee caps was self defense was beyond his capacity. Thinking back to Marcus a pang of fear ran through him.

"Did the medics bring in anyone else with me?"

The not-nurse looked a bit perplexed by his question. "No. Do you know of someone that should get treatment?"

"Nope." He said honestly. The news calmed him; Marcus was most likely still unconscious in the dumpster in the alley. The thought brought a smile to his face.

A pregnant pause followed, the girl a bit unsettled by the grin forming on the boys face. Something told her there was something a little off with her patient. She started to nervously play with her short green hair."Ummm….. Your father is here. I should go get him."

Fear once again took hold of Jaune. _Has my family found me?_ He had traveled far from home and avoided any place where his family was familiar with. Although he never changed his name as he hoped it may have drawn Mary out. It was quite possible that with enough time his family would have found him but he had assumed that after awhile they would assume him dead in the wilds.

"Oh my poor little boy I was so worried. I'm so glad you're ok." A man that was definitely not Jaune's father stepped into the room. It was Roman Torchwick, the king of the underworld. Jaune was surprised by his appearance; he had only met him once in person. In the grand scheme of things Jaune was a very little fish in a big pond and Roman was the biggest fish of them all.

"S-sir you can't be in here." The tech said nervously.

"Why not miss? You just said you were going to bring me in. Were you lying to my sweet boy about that?" Roman grin was equal parts charming and dangerous.

The poor girl started to stammer."N-No sir. I assumed you were just in the waiting area. H-How did you get in here without someone waving you through?"

"Miss Sam was it? I'm sure you're very busy, so don't trouble yourself with problems that don't exist. Now be on your way, me and my son need to have a conversation" The timid teen briefly debated staying but she had already taken the patients vitals and honestly the boy's father had a kind of scary aura about him.

Roman watch with satisfaction as the annoying girl beat a hasty retreat from the room, leaving him alone with his young henchman. "So Jaune you've had quite an eventful day. I'm rather surprised that you survived it."

"I'm really sorry I lost the package Mr. Torchwick." Jaune prayed that Roman wasn't here to fire (or kill) him for his loss of his dessert. Even though this struck Jaune as unlikely the stories of Roman's ruthlessness were as endless as they were bloody.

Roman laughed as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. "Nonsense kid you managed to take out the best assassin in Remnant. He's the laughing stock of the criminal world now, will be lucky to ever see a job again. And my god, bashing in his knees, icing on the cake Jaunny boy."

"How do you know any this sir?" _I've been passed out and Black sure as hell wasn't about to saying anything._

Roman took a seat in a nearby chair and put a fat cigar in his mouth. "Well kid the person you were supposed to deliver the package to got a little bored waiting. Honestly, I don't know why she insists someone drop off ice cream for her. But anyway she found you cornered in the alley and decide to watch the show. And to the worlds surprise you came out on top."

"You're telling me she just watched me getting killed and did nothing!" Anger coursed through Jaune. Whoever she was Jaune swore vengeance against her. _And to think I felt bad about losing that ice cream._

Lighting his cigar Roman shrugged. "ehh, Your alive kid. And you delivered the package to the intended recipient so it all worked out."

"I lost the package."

Roman took a long drag off his cigar "Nope she picked the package up from you."

The pain in Jaune's jaw flared a bit. Thinking back on the girl he swore vengeance on he remembered the strength and speed behind her kick. _You know what, Mom always did say it was best to forgive people._

Smelling the smoke Sam popped her head back into the room "E-Exuse me sir, you aren't supposed to smoke in here. There's a sign right next to you that says so." Sure enough a metal plaque was inlayed into the wall the stated that smoking was against the rules.

Roman stood up and walked over to the wall. He casually rammed the hooked end of his cane through the wall just above the offending plaque. With a pull he wrenched the plaque from the wall and onto the floor. Picking it up he threw it out the window shattering the glass. "What sign?"

Poor Sam disappeared with a loud "EEEPPPP."

"Won't she get security?" Jaune inquired.

Roman sat back down "I own this hospital. Good way to order large amount of drugs legally and patch up henchmen." He took another drag on his cigar "She must be new. I'll make sure to have her fired."

Jaune steered the conversation back "So I won't have to see the pint sized psycho again?"

A smile formed on Roman's face. "Oh no Juane." Jaune did not like where this was headed. "You will be seeing a lot of dear Neo"

 _Neo, a name to go with the terrible girl. What did I do to deserve this cruel fate? Oh wait, never mind, I'm a criminal who abandoned their family._

"Why is that sir?" Jaune said with the enthusiasm of a man being told he had to mow a minefield.

"Training of course" Jaune raised an eyebrow "Training?"

"When I hired you I saw potential. Admittedly I never figured enough potential to defeat Marcus Black, but for once I'm happy to be wrong." A feeling of pride welled up in Jaune. "Now it would just be criminal to waste that potential by seeing you killed or arrested on the streets due to some bad luck. So I figure I get you trained up and unlock your Aura I can use you as a third man on the big heists."

"What do you mean by third man?" Jaune asked.

Standing up Roman swung his cane around. "Well Jaunny boy I find it best to always handle the biggest jobs myself. " Roman continued with clear annoyance "But due to the fact that most of my men are either too stupid or too weak to last on the more complicated or difficult jobs the only person I can rely on is sweet little Neo." _Yeah real sweet._ "And there's only so much you can do with two people. So with you as a third we can handle bigger jobs." Roman paused and sat back down and flashed a savage grin. "So are you in Jaune?"

"One condition"

Roman raised his eyebrow "And what is that?"

"I'm not killing anyone." Some lines were just not to be crossed.

Roman waved his hand dismissively, a minor look of annoyance on his face. "Fine. I'm sure Neo will be thrilled to have more people to kill anyways. Although I really believe you would make a great killer Jaune, it does pays more."

"I told you when we meet I'm not in this for the money"

Roman smirked at the comment. "Yes, you did say that. I guess we have a deal then Arc"

* * *

Jaune found himself inside his new dorm surrounded by his new team. They had just entered the dorm, four beds, a desk and a large dresser greeting them. Additionally a single bathroom was attached to the team dorm. Each member proceeded to unpack their bags, except the energetic Nora, who jumped atop the new beds yelling that she was queen of the castle. Jaune figured that now was as good time as any to get to know his team a bit better.

"All right guys, ummm… you all seem like a good team. I'll try not to let you down as a leader." _That wasn't awkward._

Nora started to jump to the other beds. "Yeah! Team JNPR will be the greatest team in the history of ever. And we'll become rich selling Ursa hides. And be awesome. And eat all the pancakes!" Her exuberance seemed endless.

"Nora, it's not polite to jump on others' beds." It seemed the only thing as endless as Nora's exuberance was Ren's patience and calm.

"Oh, sorry Renny, I'm just so excited." Nora jumped down to the floor and seemed to calm down a bit.

"So, do you two know each other well?" Pyrrha politely inquired.

"We have been together for a while" Ren answered coolly.

Nora blushed "Well not together together, that would be weird. Right Renny?" Ren seemed to have tuned out Nora's words as he continued to unpack his bag. Nora didn't really seem to notice his lack of response and continued to rattle off reasons that it would be weird as Pyrrha polity listened.

"So Ren that was a pretty cool trick hiding your SMGs up your sleeves" Jaune was pretty impressed by his teammates concealment trick, especially seeing as the SMGs were bladed. Once he had attempted that trick with a knife before he had unlocked his aura and accidently slit his wrist. That had been an awkward ER trip.

"Thanks, it's pretty easy though." Jaune frowned a bit at that. Ren considered asking about his teammate's weapon in turn but remembering his leader's sub-par performance with it during the initiation he decided to ask a safer question. "So where are you from Jaune?"

The blonde hesitated a bit. He had been born in a small settlement and lived there until he was 13. He had then run away to Vale to achieve his goals. After meeting Roman he had worked in every capital of every kingdom bouncing around from assignment to safe house most of the time, never really sticking around the same place for more than a month or so. Not really something he could tell Ren. "I was living in Vale before I got here. What about you Ren?"

The boy shrugged "Mostly roamed the countryside with Nora."

Jaune was a bit intrigued at that bit of information. It did explain the familiarity between Ren and Nora. "Wouldn't that have been dangerous with all the grimm around?"

"You know how grimm are attracted to negative emotions." Ren said this more as a statement than a question.

"Yes." _No_. In all honesty Jaunes knowledge of grimm extended to, grimm are bad, grimm attack humans, grimm live outside the city walls, and thanks to initiation he now knew grimm were scary. Between learning how to be a master criminal and cartoons Jaune never really learned much about the bane of humanity.

"Well my semblance allows me to eliminate emotion within myself thus preventing grimm from even seeing me." Jaune weighted the implications of such a semblance. With Ren's semblance the boy could be an amazing criminal. One's ability to commit crimes was very reliant on their nerve. He remembered a getaway driver that had lost his nerve and bailed on him during a heist.

This still raised a question though. "What about Nora? How did she avoid grimm?"

"I can extend my semblance to encompass another if I touch them." Just knowing her for a few hours an emotionless Nora was hard for Jaune to imagine.

"So Jaune, you said you lived in the city?" Pyrrha asked taking advantage of the lull in Nora's rant which had somehow changed to one about sloth noises.

"Yes" Answered Jaune cautiously hoping that no more questions would be asked about his life.

"Do you live with your family?" _Damn._ Jaune couldn't say no, which would just raise more questions.

"I live with my uncle, but he travels for work so I'm on my own a lot." Uncle Roman, now that was ridiculous.

The Spartan seemed as if she was going to continue to make small talk but was interrupted by an exuberant Nora."Jaune you have got to show us the city. It will be so awesome." Nora was again jumping on the bed that she had claimed for herself. Her smile increased as a thought popped into her head. "Do you have an apartment?"

Jaune hesitated with his answer due to the look on her face "Ummm….Yes." He had an apartment designated for him as a safe house. He was kinda a slob and it was a mess of junk food, guns, comics, body armor, video games, and explosives. Thanks to Neo it also had to have a fully stocked fridge of ice cream to survive her surprise visits. Now that he thought about the apartment he also may have left the water running too.

Nora's smile increased at the knowledge "And your uncle is away?"

He was getting nervous now "Yes"

Nora's smile reach critical mass. "We should throw a party there!"

Before he could formulate a response Ren came to the rescue. "Nora, it's not polite to steal people's homes."

"Awwwww, but Renny it would be awesome." She flopped down on to her bed and made a puppy dog face so gut wrenchingly cute Jaune almost fell for it.

"Nora, no." apparently Ren was immune to her tricks.

Deciding to switch the conversation away from himself he turned to Pyrrha "What's our schedule like tomorrow."

Pyrrha had decided to pick up their paperwork after the initiation. She seemed to be very organized and competent in combat….honestly she should have been made the leader. _Maybe_ _Ozpin mixed up our names and she really is supposed to be the leader._ It made more sense than him being picked _. I should ask him when I get the chance._ The girl dug through their paperwork to find the schedule. Finding the paper she looked it over.

"It appears we will first have grimm studies at with Professor Port" _Need to pay attention to that if I ever want to survive another fight with the grimm_. "History with Professor Obleck" _Boooring._ "and finally combat class with Mrs. Goodwitch." _Awww Yeah, time to show I'm not a slouch in combat. Initiation made me look like a loser but I'm going to school these guys in fighting people._

* * *

"The winner is Cardin Winchester" announced Goodwitch.

 _This is absolute bullshit._ He was laying on the floor his aura in the red zone. Today was not going well for Jaune. First he had fallen asleep in Ports class which ticked him off. He was trying to learn how to survive grimm but the teacher just droned on and on about stupid stories from his youth. Even with his interest in the subject he had succumbed to sleep. Then he met the history teacher, a coffee addict whose mouth and teaching speed was permanently set on ludicrous speed. Jaune was pretty sure the man had covered a few hundred years of history but honestly he had only caught a third of the lesson. He would have been ok with this if it wasn't for the fact that the insane teacher had assigned a three page essay on the subject.

Then came combat class. It had been going great as he watched attentively seeing all the students' strengths and most importantly weaknesses. When it was his turn to battle Caridin he had no doubt in his mind that he could kill the arrogant fool. And there was the problem, killing. Jaune always fought to kill opponents. He couldn't kill here. Heck, he couldn't even maim here as that would bring about attention. This completely threw his preferred methods of causing as much pain as possibly out the window. Here in the ring against an opponent with aura his only unarmed tactic would be a slow grind against his opponents shielding. Not something Jaune thought he could win against an armed and armored opponent. Thankfully he himself was armed. Then during the fight another horrifying fact was made clear to Jaune. He didn't know how to fight with a sword. He mostly swung the sword like a baseball bat only for it to be parried by Caridin's mace at every strike. Even then he may have been able to beat Caridin with his vastly superior speed and reflexes if it wasn't for one other thing _. I have said it in the past and I will say again. I hate shields._ The shield had only served to severely limit his mobility and removed his left hand from the fight. It completely disallowed him the ability to take advantage of Caridins weak points and made it impossible to perform more acrobatic feats Jaune could normally do.

"Mr. Caridian, remember to not over extend yourself. You left many openings that a more skilled opponent could have take advantage of. Mr. Arc in the future you would do well to use your shield offensively in addition you should work on your swordsmanship. You seem to lack proper form…. Among other things."

"Ha loser" his opponents sniped

Jaune continued to lay slumped on the floor and groaned. _I'm really starting to hate Beacon_.

* * *

Far away from Beacon in a high-rise in Mistral a man sat at a desk overlooking reviews of his company's revenue for the quarter. The words on the name plate on his desk said his name was Charon. The words on the side of the building said that this was Charon industries. The words on the broachers downstairs said that Charon industries specialized in recovery in grimm infested lands and that's why the company needed so many guns and dangerous men. In reality the man was Charon, CEO of Charon industries, and they did need many guns and dangerous men. But in reality Charon industries never went near any grimm. In reality Charon was head of the most powerful criminal organization in all of Minstral.

The expensive mahogany doors that were the entrance to the office opened. In walked Charon's assistant and counselor. "You called for me sir." The man said in a smooth voice.

"Yes, I see here that revenue has fallen substantially in this quarter. I take it the expansion into Vale was unsuccessful."

Weaker men may have faltered when asked by a crime lord if asked the same question. The counselor didn't. "Yes sir. Most notably we lost Mr. Menzer" The counselor had worked under the most vicious and powerful of men.

Charon sighed. "A shame he was quite reliable. I would be correct to assume the financial assets are unrecoverable."

The Counselor nodded. "You would be correct sir."

Charon stood up from his desk and walked to the window. He looked down onto the town, enjoying the view of his kingdom. "Our intelligence indicated Roman was too busy with petty dust robberies to handle us. How did this happen?"

"A survivor of the warehouse killing gave a good description of the primary issue."

Charon raised an eyebrow "Oh?"

A file was placed on the desk. "The description matches someone in Roman's organization. An assassin known as The Knight."

The CEO sat back in his chair and looked over the file. "He sounds familiar."

"He was responsible for the killing of the entire Scaramoachey crime family a few months ago. He also killed a man with a pencil."

This all sounded vaguely familiar to Charon. "I thought it was two men."

"No sir, you're thinking of the other assassin, Baba Yaga. He killed the two men with a pencil and it was the Tarasov crime family he killed."

Charon continued to flip through the file. "Thank you Counselor. It seems we will need to kill this knight if we are to open up Vale to Charon Industries. Call up the mercenaries and have him disposed of."

The counselor nodded towards his employer. "It will be done sir."

The file was placed back onto the desk "Good."

* * *

 **Sorry about the long update time, my editor was unavailable for a bit. Make sure to leave some feedback in the comments.**


	4. Training Montage

It had been a hard year for 15 year old Jaune. Learning to be the third man for Roman's jobs had been a grueling process. Roman couldn't afford a liability on those jobs so Jaune was instructed on everything the master criminal could think of that would be of use to his minion. This had lead to Jaune's routine for the last few months; days filled with exercise and instruction by the worst people Remnant had to offer. Specialists in their respective areas of crime each taught him some lesson or skill. He was expected to meet all their expectations before he could move on.

First had been Tommy "three-fingers", a crippled fanus revolutionary who instructed Jaune in all aspects of things that went boom. From charges for vault doors, flash-bangs, IEDs, to even dirty bombs Jaune could now properly handle any explosive. The final test had been to set up a volatile fire dust bomb. While technically challenging , Jaune found it to be a bit mundane after so many other tests with live munitions. At least until afterwards when Tommy told him it was the same type of device that had mained him.

Next had came Dominic, an aging veteran turned mercenary who now owned a firing-range that acted as a front for Roman. The man had never finished primary school and could barley read, ranted about government control every other hour, and added curses to every sentence but he knew more than probably anyone else on Remnant about firearms. After his instruction Jaune could dissemble almost any mass produced weapon and handle it with the precision of a surgeon. Dominic never showed him much about Meca-shifting weapons though due to their custom nature.

After that came Martin; a man who wore a badge and swore to uphold the law but had decided the pay was better if he forsake that oath. And while Martin still lazily pined on the badge in the morning he spent his days doing whatever criminals paid him for. On top of being a dirty cop Martin eventual became a cat burglar to make even more money, turned out he was the best burglar in town. He taught Jaune about handling security, police procedure, how to be quiet, how to pick locks and pockets, and all sorts of unusual ways to enter an area. Honestly, Jaune felt that Martin's instruction would prove to be the most useful in his future endeavors. The other skills he had been taught were more lethal in their nature even if some other uses could be derived from them. Even still he held a certain amount of secret contempt for him. Something about the man pretending to protect the innocence rubbed him the wrong way.

An older teen named Baby of all things had been his next instructor. He was on loan from a small crew that specialized in bank robberies. The guy was a genius behind the wheel of any vehicle even if he did have some weird tendencies. Baby listened to music at all times and when he wasn't driving he always seemed off in his own world. Despite all that Jaune found him to be a good guy. During the final test Baby and Jaune had lead police on a high speed chase that prompted the police to upgrade their fleet in response to the embarrassment it caused the force. A month later Jaune learned that Baby flipped out during a heist and killed his entire crew.

Roman had stepped into an instructor position for what he did best, the social part of crimes and how to commit them with style. He showed him how dress for success in any situation, one day he could look like a hood rat and the next a man of class and power. He had Jaune sit in and eventually handle negotiations with gang bosses, dirty politicians, and crooked cops. Jaune struggled greatly in the beginning; social situations were not things that came natural to him. On the brink of failing an important meeting that could have cost him his life he developed a trick. He visualized his ultimate goal on the other side of the negotiation, nothing else mattered expect his goal. It made him cold and dangerous, but it served him well in negotiations turning the awkward goof into a man who could wield ruthlessness and charisma for his gain. Of course it only seemed to work with matters of extreme importance and didn't help at all when Roman attempted to teach him the art of seduction.

In Jaune's defense he was a scrawny fourteen year old. Roman pushing him into a bar and telling him to bring back a woman hadn't exactly been the ideal environment for success. After that failed attempt Roman conceded to the fact that Juane was still a young teen. Never the less Roman pushed on hoping to teach his young protégé this ever important skill. After a month of dropping Jaune into random school dances, ice cream parlors, and teen hang-outs he decided the Jaune completely lacked any ability to be a ladies' man. It wasn't a complete failure; Roman had a few hours of hilarious video of the young criminal stuttering and choking up when talking to females. Personally Roman's favorite was when a girl thought Jaune was physically choking and did the Heimlich maneuver on the poor boy. He took mercy on Jaune and told him he learned all he was going to learn.

That only left one last challenge for Jaune. The pint sized Demon, Neo. During the entirety of his training with the other specialists she had also been training him to fight. Since day one she would fight him at the end of every week. In the beginning the fights were just a good way for Neo to beat up someone for fun. Before their first bout he asked her if he would get his aura unlocked. After beating him up she indicated to him that if he landed a blow on her she would unlock his aura. A lot of time working out and a few hospital trips later he had gotten pretty dam good at dodging but still couldn't land a hit. She was a blur of high speed kicks and acrobatic feats that easily over whelmed him. He tried his visualization trick; he ignored a lot of pain doing it and finally landed that blow. He had ended up in the hospital after that but when Neo finally unlocked his Aura he finally had a chance of beating her.

At least that's what he thought. The aura just meant Neo could go harder on him. He seemed stagnant for a bit so he decided to ask Roman for a few tricks about fighting. The man was a wealth of wisdom on cheating and playing dirty. With that in mind he was finally able to put Neo on the defensive. Unfortunately she had been playing dirty longer than him. She grabbed her parasail, which he learned was a deceptively dangerous weapon, and beat the hell out of him.

Knowing melee weapons were in play Jaune shopped around for an equalizer to Neo's armament. First he tried a knife but found he couldn't get close enough to jab the girl. He then found out that longer implements such as swords, bo-staffs, and spears were easily parried and left him open. Next he tried nun-chucks but to Neo's amusement he only was able to hit himself in the face with it. He thought about maybe a shield but after its betrayal in the alley against Black he decided against it. Finally he settled on a length of fiber wire, it was good for redirecting blows and aura couldn't help with strangulation.

With it he had gotten her into a strangle hold in their last bout. He could just abot taste victory. One moment he could feel her struggling against the wire around her neck, the next she shattered into a million shards of glass. He was absolutely shocked at the turn of events and his brain was still rebooting when her leg smashed into his head from behind. After losing that fight he asked Roman to explain what had happened during the fight. Roman just started laughing and told him that that was Neo's semblance, she teleported along with the ability to alter her appearance. A maniacal grin appeared on Jaunes face. This was it for him, that was her last and best trick he finally had her.

This all lead up to Jaune Arc's current situation. He had Neo back in the same choke hold he had her in last week. She had gone all out to prevent this situation again and it had cost Jaune to make it this far into the fight. Neo had to give it to her pupil; he had grown to be a good opponent over the year. But she still detested him. He was weak in her eyes, a punk that had lucked out against Marcus and now thought he could play criminal. He may have had the capacity to learn some skills but he would never have the balls to kill. In her eyes he was just a pretender that would get her killed on a job, and she'd be dammed if he beat her. She wouldn't be the bottom bitch of their three person unit.

Their aura had been depleted already. Blood obscured Jaune's vision in his left eye from a gash along his forehead. A roundhouse kick had dislodged one of his teeth. Bruises and cuts covered their bodies. Neo had lost her weapon a bit ago and was slowly losing oxygen. Jaune's grip remained firm despite his injuries and her resistance. He felt her weaken a bit. _Come on do it._

As he expected his wire went slack as the sound of glass shattering was heard. Lightning quick he spun on the balls of his feat, wire held vertical in his hands. Neo did not have time to disengage her blow aimed at what had been a moment before Jaune's back. Now her foot was ensnared in his wire.

 _Got you_.

He used her ensnared foot and slammed her to the hard ground. He followed up by smashing his foot into her face but she shattered again. He swung around with a kick. It connected with a very surprised Neo's face.

He had worked out that Neo would teleport to her opponent's rear as it was a good place to attack an enemy. A bit too good.

She stepped back dazed. He kept predicting her rear sneak attack she realized, time to change tactics. She teleported again to avoid a right hook from Jaune.

 _Ok, she is not going to fall for that again_. Now he didn't know where she would come from. Alternatively he knew where she wouldn't come from. He stepped back just in time to see a flying kick go by where his head had been. He swung his fist into her stomach. She doubled over in pain, vomit rising to her mouth. With satisfaction he brought his elbow down onto the back of her head sending her face first into the ground.

He stepped back still ready for the mute to shatter into glass. After a few moments with no change he knew he had obtained victory. This was it, after a year of grueling training he had come out on top. All the many long days of working out, taking vicious beatings, and honing his craft relentlessly had finally paid off.

Neo regained consciousness and awoke to a splitting head ache and the bitter taste of defeat. She couldn't even comfort herself with the idea that outside a spar she would win, she had used every trick she had and gone all out against him. This was it for her reputation too, to be beaten by a scrawny dork two years her junior. He would never shut up about it, now everyone in the underworld would know of her loss. In this world one lived and died by their reputation and she had enough issues being a vertically challenged mute female.

Jaune crouched down next to Neo. "Hey good fight Neo"

And now he had come to mock her. She would have punched him if she had the strength to. Instead she managed to raise her hand and give him the bird. To her displeasure he smiled and laughed.

He stood up grabbing her hand and pulled her up to her feet. Neo instantly tried to step away from him but her legs betrayed her and she began to fall. He wrapped his arm under her armpit to catch her. Dam him. She hated him making her look like she needed help. She shot a glare his way trying to communicate that she would kill him as soon as she got some rest.

He smiled "Come on Neo. What are you so sore about? You have 51 wins on me; I still have awhile to go before I'm matched up with you."

She was a bit relieved that he wasn't lording his win over her; in fact she was a bit surprised he went to help her up. Every time she beat him she just left him broken on the floor. Once she had beaten him so badly he had to crawl with a broken leg towards a cell phone on the other side of the abandon warehouse to get help. Now he was actually being nice. She looked away from him and huffed. She didn't care, she'd still kill him.

He helped her walk to the exit. "Let's get some ice cream, my treat." Ok, she wouldn't kill him; just make him live an existence filled with intense pain.

"All you can eat."

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Now she knew he was either lying or didn't know her appetite because he did not have the money for that. A mischievous look came across his face.

"We'll pick pocket the cash on the way over." He said seemingly reading her mind

She matched his mischievous grin. In her mind she updated Jaune Arc form annoying enemy to friend.

An alarm went off on Jaune's scroll. He had it set to sound like a text so people wouldn't question what was so important at this time. Quickly he put down his comic and hopped out of his bed. Walking over to his bag he pulled out some clothing and a towel. "Hey guys I'm going out to do something."Ren waved to him in response, not looking away from his book. Pyyhra was in the dorms only shower which was quite convenient for Jaune. Nora stopped drawing a picture in crayon and looked up at him.

"What is our fearless leader doing?" asked the ever bubbly girl.

"Hot date" he said sarcastically.

Nora lit up "Details now!" she practically screamed.

"Well I will be lost in the pleasures of the flesh ravishing a sweet girl." He said even more sarcastically.

Nora's eyes became saucers "Jaune!" she screamed.

He smacked himself in the face. "Nora, I'm going down to the community shower."

"To ravish some girl." She accused.

"No Nora, I'm taking a shower." He held up his towel to further his point.

"Oh, ok, see yah Jaune" she went back to drawing. He just shook his head and headed out.

He was headed to his stated destination but upon close inspection one could notice that the change of clothing was neither Jaune's pyjama oneze nor any other attire suitable for a student. It was a jumpsuit more suited to the janitorial staff of Beacon with the name Bates sewn on its right breast.

He entered the shower room to see or rather have its last occupant push past him.

"Watch it Arc" Cardin sneered as he exited.

Jaune picked himself up and rolled his eyes. _Jeez that guys just a dick._

He took a few more seconds to make sure no one else was in the room. Finding no one he entered the third stall from the north wall. In it he found the one thing that made this stall look a little different than the others on the architectural plans; a small air vent that was a few feet above the toilet. He jimmied it open and placed the grate down on the ground. He quickly disrobed and donned his jumpsuit. Unfolding his towel he found a fake mustache, color contacts, and a hat with the logo of the company that handled Beacons janitorial duties. Then he picked up his discarded cloths, fished a small case out of one of the pockets, and then hid the clothing in the vent.

Stepping out he examined himself. Green contacts hid his blue eyes, the cap concealed his blonde hair, and the fake cop stash made him look older. _Not my best work but it will do._

He exited the room and walked to the nearest janitor's closet. He entered it with the aid of his lock pick and grabbed a trash cart. Walking out he found himself face to face with another janitor.

"Hey" the man gave a tired smile. "You one of the new guys?"

"Yeah, first day." There was a reason he had decided to use a janitor as a cover. He knew they hired en mass when a new school year started then laid most of them off during the summer. No one would ask questions about a new face.

"Well best of luck to you man, I'm off." The real janitor walked back into the closet to turn in his gear.

Jaune pushed his cart forward towards his destination. He checked his scroll to see the time was 8:05 p.m., the last hour where teachers were still in their class rooms doing paperwork or helping students. Also the last hour they were guaranteed to be out of their rooms. From prior intelligence he knew Amber acted as some sort of temp instructor so he inferred she would stay in the teachers' housing. On top of that he had brought a few bugs to gain intelligence on what the teachers were up to and if possible gain more intel on the illusive Amber.

Arriving at the row of teachers' apartments he inserted his lock pick into the first door knob. After a few seconds he gained access to the first apartment. It was covered in pictures of Port standing over some dead conquest and fake mounted grimm heads. _This guy is kinda full of himself._

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the case from earlier, opening it to reveal a dozen miniature listening devices. He moved carefully without moving anything in the room, bugging the living room and bed room as they would be the most likely place for conversation to happen.

Once finished he moved to the next room. He found nothing unusual about this apartment but figured it was Glynda's as he saw a large scroll on a coffee table charging. The same scroll that randomly assigned fighters in combat class _. Could get up to all sorts of trouble with that if I had the proper tools_. Briefly he debated setting up a meet in Vale for the right tools but decided against it. He had limited time to find Amber as she only was at an academy for around two or three weeks. After that he would need to leave and search some more for her. He couldn't spare the time to make a trip to Vale for such a trivial matter, not when he was so close to getting Amber.

Finished bugging Glynda's room he move to the next one. This one was defiantly the history teacher's apartment; every room had at least one loaded coffee maker _. No way it can be healthy drinking this much coffee_. He bugged it and moved on.

Opening the next room he found it completely empty; no furniture or anything. This one must have been a spare room. A pang of fear rose up in his mind. _Could she have left, or worse was the intel wrong and she hasn't even been here._ He calmed himself, it was just as likely that she may have not arrived just yet or that she was housed in another room. He still bugged it just in case she did move into the room later on.

Moving to the last room he found this one different. Instead of a regular lock a skeleton key was required to open it, and he lacked the tools for this. He knelled down and tried to see into the room via the key whole only to see some material on the other side draped over it. _This is either Amber's or the headmaster's room. I need to get in._ _Looks like I'll be making that trip into Vale after all._ Figuring this was all he was going to get done he headed back.

He pushed the trash cart back into the closet it came from. Stepping into the shower room he found it empty and proceeded to change back into his regular attire. It was messy after being smashed in the vent but it didn't really matter to Jaune. He looked down at his scroll to check the time. Reading 9:01 he had an idea of a memory about…something. Something he was forgetting. He really should write things down more. Wait, write. _Oh crap I have that report to do for Oobleck's class. The library closes soon I need to get down there._ With that he was off to do some homework.

* * *

On the seedy side of downtown Vale Roman owned an office building to manage some money laundering operations in addition to a few odd projects he had in the works. On this particular night he was sleeping in the back office, this being the closest place for him to duck down after his latest dust heist. To his misfortune this was also one of those bad times when Cinder decided to check on his progress.

The front door opened to reveal the witch herself flanked by her minions, Mercury and Emerald. Cinder wasn't in a great mood; Roman was behind schedule on the required dust. She had confronted him on the issue during her last visit but he had assured her that he had all of his people working on it and that he would make up for the shortage with a big raid on a big Schnee shipment coming in a few months. She had deemed that acceptable but Roman was falling even more behind as of late. She decided she would pay her pawn a visit and hold his feet to the fire, quite literally.

The guard at the front desk straitened up at her entrance. He knew anyone his boss worked for was bad news. The beautiful woman and her minions walk up to him, her glass shoes making a distinct clicking noise. "Where is he?"

"Third door on the left past the computer terminals." She turned away and headed that way. The guard only permitting himself a breath after the clicking noise disappeared.

Cinder walked into a room surrounded with computer terminals manned by nerdy looking men. She knew enough about Roman's operation to know that these men handled the research on targets. In her foul mood she crossed the room scanning the researchers, reveling in their fear of her. Those little pleasures always managed to improve her mood. She especially enjoyed when they flinched at every click of her heels.

Her improving mood instantly soured at the sight of a picture taped to a terminal. To her dismay it displayed the Fall Maiden smiling. She put her hand on the researcher's shoulder and heated it up. "Who is that?" she demanded.

"S-She is someone Romans been looking into for awhile. Please don't hurt me." The man begged. She grabbed the picture.

Cinder released the unlucky man and briskly walked towards the door that lead to Roman. Questions flew through her head. Did Roman know who she is? If not then what could his interest be in her? Her best theory right now was that he knew she was important to her and he was trying to gain a bargaining chip to save his skin.

Her hand was on the door knob; she paused and took a breath regaining her composure. She briefly berated herself for her rise, it was a sign of weakness and she was anything but. Pushing the door open she saw Roman sitting at his desk reading something.

He looked her way and stood up from his desk. "Ahh, Cinndy what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" He asked with a charming grin.

She walked towards him with a sultry smile on her face. "Why my dear Roman I have a few little questions for you." Roman maintained a smile but internally he was sweating. He knew she was going to ask about him being behind schedule. It wasn't his fault that Arc was on vacation and couldn't help.

She held up the photo. "Who is this?"

He was a bit perplexed. "I couldn't really say. I have a man working for me who takes half of his payment as research on her."

Cinder was even more perplexed, who else knew of the Maiden. "Who is this man?"

Right now Roman was looking at the Devil and she was asking for his best guy. He liked Jaune but he liked his skin more _._ "He tracked me down a few years ago and asked for a job, worked his way up until he became my top assassin. At first I believe he paid Junior for information, then last year he asked me to take half of his pay to find out anything I could about that girl."

"What is his name?" Cinder asked, pressing for more information.

 _Sorry kid._ "Jaune Arc"

Mercury unexpectedly spoke up. "The one who broke my dad's knees?"

"The same."

"Guess I owe the guy a beer." Mercury said with a small grin.

This all painted a decent picture for Cinder of the man that was Jaune Arc. He must be a resourceful man if he was able to track down Roman. His success against and humiliation of Marcus Black spoke of a level of brutality she could admire. Manipulating Roman into unknowingly using his intelligence capabilities to track the Fall Maiden was a stroke of genius. Just knowing of the Maidens existence told Cinder that this man operated on a field leaps and bounds above his supposed boss, Roman."I would very much like to meet this man" she said with a dangerous edge.

Roman hesitated. "I can't do that"

Cinder lit a fire in her hand. "And pray tell my dear Roman why is that?"

"Well he's on vacation for a few weeks." Roman, in all honesty could call him for a meet but he wanted to buy the poor kid some time before he had to meet the witch.

"What vacation could be so important" Cinder asked

"Beacon"

Cinder extinguished her fire. This further confirmed her initial assessment. Already Arc had penetrated Beacon, hot on the Maiden's trail no doubt. She was a bit conflicted one her thoughts towards this mysterious character. He could prove to be a very dangerous enemy. She smiled. But if swayed this ruthless mastermind could prove to be quiet the pawn.

* * *

Jaune sprinted down the empty corridors towards his goal. It was right in front of him just a hallway away. The large double push doors to the library were so tantalizing close. He increased his pace; he had to make it in before that library closed. He needed some books if he was to complete the homework for Oobleck, and the library would close in ten minutes.

As he neared doors at full speed he intended to rush in and grab the books. The only problem was he had miscalculated the lock up time by a bit. Two minutes ago to be exact. Instead of entering the library Jaune bounced painfully off the locked doors, rolled a bit, and came to rest flat on his back. It was quiet spectacular to watch.

"Why" he uttered rather pathetically while staring at the ceiling and crying mentally. _Well at least no one saw that._

A face entered his view. "Why what Jaune?" asked Ruby politely. In addition to miscalculating the time the library closed it appear he also misjudged the emptiness of the corridor.

He picked himself up "Nothing Ruby. What are you doing here its kinda late?"

She smiled. "Well I was studying for Obleck's class. Then the library closed."

"You don't say."

"Yep. Anyways I still have a few pages to do so I'm going back to my dorm with some books I checked out." He looked down at the books she had in her arms. _Yeah, those are the ones I need._ Briefly a few ideas flashed through his brain involving conning innocent Ruby out of her book but his sense of morality won out. Pus she was just too dam cute.

He decided to just tell the truth. "Ummm… Ruby I kinda need to review those books for the same project. So if you don't mind would you study with me?" Ruby seemed to mull the idea over. "I'll buy coffee" he added. _Jeez I sound desperate._

Ruby was about to say yes when he added the caffinated incentive, she would be happy to have someone study with her. She wasn't going to refuse his kind offer though. Just as she was about to accept his invitation a rare evil though entered Ruby's brain. "And cookies?"

"Deal." Jaune answered swiftly, unaware that he was being taken advantage of.

Internally Ruby fist pumped. She had just scored some time to hang out with her dorky friend, coffee, and cookies. This studying thing was turning out to be pretty good.

* * *

"and then she knocked him out." Ruby managed to say between laughs. Jaune laughed at the humorous story of Ruby's sister, Yang, incapacitating some poor kid that had made a pass at Ruby.

They had finished studying sometime ago and had somehow gotten on the topic of siblings. Ruby had plenty of outrageous stories of her, at times, overbearing sister. In turn Jaune provided just as many funny stories about his seven sisters, a number Ruby still found insane.

Jaune's laughing died down a bit. "Remind me to never get on Yang's bad side."

"Don't get on my sisters bad side." Ruby dutifully said. Jaune found himself laughing at the lame joke. In turn Ruby laughed along with his infectious laugh.

As their laughing died down Jaune looked around. They were the only ones in the cafeteria, two empty coffees sat off to the side. Five empty packs of cookies lay across the table, none of which he had the opportunity to eat from. He looked at his scroll to see it was the middle of the night. Ruby yawned as if to emphasize the late hour.

"Well this has been really fun Ruby but I think it's time we called it a night" Honestly he had found this to be great. He didn't really get many chances to talk and hang out with people, his only friend being a mute homicidal midget with an ice cream addiction. Guess I can count Ruby as friend now, he mused. Although he still didn't have any friends that could get stuff from the top shelf.

"Yeah its been fun. Thanks for the cookies." Ruby paused for a moment "Want to do this again later."

"Sure I'll give you my scroll number. Call when you want to study again." Tactically this was unwise as it might lessen the time that he had to search for Amber but on the other hand Jaune was a bit starved for some normal social interaction _. Besides, I'm technically was on vacation time right now_. He pulled up his scroll number and showed it to Ruby.

"Seeya Jaune" she said after entering his digits. She collected her books and finished homework and walked out of the cafeteria. She took stock of the day. Her second full day at Beacon had been interesting, the teachers proving to be a bit odd and while things were a bit icy with her teammate Weiss she hoped that her diligence doing homework would help a bit. Hanging with Juane had been fun and had put to rest her fear of not making friends. Jaune seemed like a really good guy too ,not very good at fighting if initiation and combat class indicated anything, but still a good guy.

Entering her dorm she found her older sister still awake. "Where have you been?"Yang asked curiously.

"I told you I was studying silly." Ruby answered.

"Yeah you said that a few hours ago. The max I've ever seen you study is like 30 minutes Rubes."

"I was studying with Jaune" she said happily.

"Two days into school and already dating tall, blond, and scrawny. Might want to slow down there Ruby. I just might have to tell dad." Yang teased.

Ruby started to blush "Yaaaaaang" she whined "it's not like that. Jaunes just a friend."

"A friend you were out late with. Was he a gentleman and paid for date?" Yang continued. She just loved messing with her little sis.

Ruby turned to hide her blush. Yes Jaune had paid for food but it was not a date as her crazy sister was implying. "I'm going to bed." She huffed crossing her arms.

"Cause if he wasn't a gentleman I'll have to break his arms" Even though Yang said her statement with humor Ruby still shuddered. Her sister was not above using violence. She was about to attempt to say something in Juane's defense only for their roommate to interject.

"Ummm…Guys I'm trying to sleep. Can you two please keep it down?" Blake asked politely.

"Sorry" Ruby squeaked, now even more embarrassed.

The conversation over, Ruby got into her pajamas and laid down in her bed. Stupid Yang, she thought before sleep claimed her.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to everyone for their support and ideas.**


	5. Struggles of a Criminal

Jaune brought the cup of coffee to his lips and took a sip. He savored the strong brew, enjoying the caffeine boost during the early hour. Setting it down next to a donut he ordered he looked around the small donut shop he was currently sitting in. It was mostly empty except for himself and the owner. Out of the corner of Jaune's eye he saw a sign that proudly stated that it didn't serve fanuses. _They should just sell coffee here. The donuts are disgusting._ It was a few days after his victory over Neo and he was currently on his subsequent assignment. He was a bit nervous even though the job sounded simple. _Of course my last simple job was to deliver ice cream and that went sooooo well._

The shop he sat in paid protection money to Roman and while for the most part that meant breaking legs when the shop owner was late on payments it also meant on some rare occasions that actual protection would need to be provided. Yesterday the White Fang had smashed a rock through one of the shops windows and threatened more violence against the shop unless it served fanus customers. While the shop owner could have called the police they weren't known for being very good at their job in this part of town and besides he paid protection money for a reason.

That's what brought Jaune here today, to beat up whoever the Fang sent to carry out their threat. His fingers tapped on the table in an attempt to steady his nerves _. I wonder how many guys they will send. I hope they're not armed. Jeez how am I going to handle this? Should I have waited outside instead then I could have walked in all cool and fought them. "Them" possibly being 70 rattlesnake fanuses armed with flame-throwers. I should say something cool, something like "you just got toasted". No that's stupid._ He was pulled from his thoughts as the door opened to reveal three masked fanuses. One female armed with a sword and two males armed with baseball bats.

"The fanus people will no longer suffer discrimination." The female yelled with malice at the frightened owner.

His fingers increased their tempo against the table. Ok _just three of them; if I can handle Neo then I can handle these guys_. He tried to silence a voice inside him that reminded him it took 52 attempts to best Neo and he only got one shot at this. _Shit. Let's do this._

He stood up as calmly as his adrenaline fueled body would allow him. The female turned towards him. "Please sit down and remain calm we are just here to teach this man a lesson for his hatred. You will not be harmed if you stay where you are"

His hands shook. He tried to calm his breathing. Thoughts of failure clouded him. _Come on there just some young untrained thugs_. To the girl he appeared to be freaking out. She gripped her blade tighter and took a step closer to the boy. She knew people could do a lot of stupid things when frightened. This kid looked like he was going to fall apart crying if his shaking hands and fearful eyes indicated anything. It made her feel a bit sick; she was here to bring justice not scare innocent people this bad. She stepped closer to him. "Listen, we're the good guys, just don't do anything and you'll be fine. This will be over soon." She said in a quiet and comforting tone.

The shakes in his hands continued. _I need to calm down. OK… right now these people are standing between me and my goal, all I have to do is take them out and I'm home free._ He casually stepped within striking distance of the girl, the shakes absent from his hands.

Her ears twitched. Something just changed in the boy as he stepped forward, his eyes held no more fear but instead a cold edge. She was about to bring her weapon to bear to push him back but was too slow. His open palm struck her throat with a speed she didn't know was possible. "Yes, it will." He said as he watched her fall to her knees clutching her throat making a sickening gurgling sound as she went. Striking with speed and not much force he knew he hadn't shattered anything, just temporarily interrupted her breathing, she would live. He turned to find the other two fanuses standing and staring with expressions of surprise on their face. "We fighting or you just going to stand there?"

That seemed to bring the two goons into reality. They charged him baseball bats at the ready. Jaune pulled his own weapon out, the fiber wire wrapped around one hand. His two assailants entered into his range simultaneously. Stepping back to avoid the bats aimed his way he snapped the wire into the face of one of the attackers. The one goon recoiled in pain as the other pressed his attack.

Compared to Neo's kicks the fanus's swings were moving in slow motion. He effortlessly dodged the increasingly angered man's attacks until he managed to wrap his wire around the man's bat hand. Using himself as a fulcrum he swung the attacker over him onto a table. Winded, the man wasn't able to stop Jaune as he brought his elbow down into the man's face, sending him into unconsciousness.

Looking over Jaune saw the other man charging him and the girl slowly rising, recovered from his sucker punch. Grabbing his coffee Jaune threw the scalding liquid at the charging assailant breaking his momentum. Rushing forward he kicked the girl in the face on his way towards the other man. He struck the man in the stomach causing him to double over. Wrapping his wire around his opponent's neck Jaune started strangling him. The man struggled but in the end it was useless against Jaune's iron grip.

Releasing the man when he joined his comrade in a state of unconsciousness Jaune looked over at the fanus girl laying on the ground, still awake but too weak to fight. _Ok if I'm going to do something cool now would be a good time. I could say you've been terminated. No that's not cool. Look what cat dragged in and I took out? No that's just dumb. Oh, I've got it._

Blake watched as the boy that took out her team walked behind the counter. He reappeared with a donut and napkin in hand. Walking over to her he laid the napkin and donut on the floor in front of her. "You've been served." She glared at the bastard. Did he think the plight of her people was a joke? She promised to beat the shit out of him if she ever got the chance.

With that Jaune walked back into the kitchen. He found the owner pulling a knife out of a draw, an angry look on his face. "Mess with me will they. Fuck'n show then. Skin those god dam animals."

Jaune smashed his fist into the owner's gut. "You will do no such thing." He said in a low voice. "I was here to handle a problem you made. Roman won't appreciate you escalating things with a murder. Screw up again and the only person getting skinned will be you." The owner pathetically whimpered at Jaune's threat. He turned to leave out the back door. "And take down that sign."

Honestly Roman wouldn't care about some dead fanuses, but he did. He would not have blood on his conscience.

* * *

"The winner is Ms. Belladonna" declared Ms. Goodwitch.

Blake looked down at her defeated opponent heaving on the floor. When she had seen Jaune on the first day she knew he was the boy that had beaten her in the donut shop. At first she had been leery of confronting him as he didn't seem to notice her. A confrontation could cause Jaune to ID her as a Fanus terrorist, even though she had been masked her knowledge of the incident would out her. Something she just wasn't ready to reveal. She had decided to shadow Juane and find out more about him and his reasons for being here.

That had been four days ago. Now she wasn't too sure if he was who she thought he was. They certainly looked to be the same person, but that's where the similarities ended. Juane was awkward around people and lacked tact while the person in the shop had manipulated her into a false sense of security with mock fear. The attacker had been cool collected while Jaune appeared nervous all the time. The only time she had seen Jaune confident was right before Cardin kicked his ass in combat class yesterday. During initiation Jaune had been so scared by the grimm and he hadn't even managed a decent swing against them. In the shop the boy had stepped up to three armed opponents with determination and had destroyed them without breaking a sweat.

In their match Jaune had charged in swinging his sword without any precision. He was terrible with a shield; he seemed to think I was a wall that enemies would just aim for. She just attacked him were his shield wasn't. It also kinda helped that he was holding it upside down too. He just kinda stood there and took it, flailing his sword. Seriously, had he ever used a shield before this week?

Watching the blond exit the ring and walk towards his team she wondered. Could it all just be an act? If so why was he here? She saw him trip on a bleacher. What was the point? The school was for the best, no one would bat an eyelash at combat prowess. She narrowed her eyes; Juane Arc would need to be watched.

* * *

Juane slumped down into the bleacher sore from his beating. _I have severely screwed this up. I thought my weapon would be out of place, but that Blake girl has a knife/ pistol thing she swings around on a bow which most likely has some kind of wire hidden in it. So basically my weapons._ He sat back up to watch the next fight between Yang and Cardin _.I need to get my weapons back. No idea how the heck I'm going to kill a grimm with them, but I'm not getting my ass kicked again. The grimm thing probably won't be a problem I'll be out of here in a few week anyways._

Watching the fight he tried to memorize the two fighters' patterns and eye some weaknesses. _Cardin seems to favor his right side too much, can't believe I'm losing to that asshole._ He looked over at Yang. _Man, she must hit like a truck. Hhhmmm her boobs bounce a lot. I wonder if that gets in her way_. He absentmindedly switched from making fighting strategies to day dreaming about the blonde brawler. She definitely had a great figure and there was something about her care free attitude that he found attractive. _Maybe I should talk to her_. The little voice of reality put him in check, reminding him that he she was a huntress in training and he was a killer. Then the little voice pushed him over and kicked him in the head, telling him that even if that wasn't the case she was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of his league. _I did puke on her too._

 _Well she's not the only attractive girl here._ He looked over at his partner _. Not that I have a chance with any of them._

Tuning back into the world around him he saw the fight was over. He cursed himself for his inattentiveness. _Get your head in the game Arc you could have just missed some crucial detail that could help me win a fight_. He reminded himself that he was on a dangerous mission that could lead him into confrontation with any of the students. Even with his training and experience he figured more than a few students could flatten his ass in a strait up fight. Learning who could and how to take them out could be instrumental in the completion of his personal mission. The bell rang pulling him from his thoughts and signaling the end of the class.

"Lunch time!" Nora said, eager to get her hands on some of the sweet, sweet deliciousness that were the pancakes that to her immense delight were offered in the cafeteria at every meal every day.

While he didn't show it Ren was a bit terrified by that fact as when he and Nora had lived traveling around they had never had a constant supply of pancakes. With a constant supply of pancakes he had no idea if Nora would eat anything other than the unhealthy food. He could just imagine a chubby Nora getting clobbered by some grimm, and that was the least of his worries when it came to Nora and food. She had thus far been too distracted by pancakes to notice that she had a near limitless supply of sugar around her. Once she had gotten her hands on few packets of sugar and hadn't been able to sleep for three days. The main thing was haunting his dreams lately was the thought of his best friend with coffee. He had managed to keep her away from the stuff so far but there was just so much of it around Beacon, yesterday he had seen Oobleck dragging a cart full of bags of coffee grounds to who knows were. It was just a matter of time before she got her hands on the stuff and when that day came… He shuddered.

"Something wrong Ren?" Jaune asked seeing his teammate shudder.

"No, everything will be fine." Ren answered his eyes telling Jaune that the boy was somewhere else entirely.

"Ooook then. I've gotta text someone, meet you guys at the lunch table in a sec." Walking around the corner Jaune pulled out his scroll. Flipping through his contacts he clicked on the face of Neo.

 **Need my weapons back.** He texted

A message came back. **Why?**

 **Getting my butt kicked without them. Also bring the Gen 3 lock pick, a pound of Hi-x plastic explosives, a few M3 detonators, some more bugs, and a digital decryptor with a zombie protocol.**

 **Hahahah you suck. Can get you the weapons Sunday the rest will take a bit longer to get. Meet next to the fountain. Remember to bring ice cream.**

Another text from Neo followed. **Also Roman wants you on a dust heist next sometime next week. I'll give you the details later.**

He agreed to the meeting, which was in two days. Putting his scroll away he walked towards the lunch hall. Unaware of the brewing storm he was walking towards.

* * *

"Ruby, you did terrible on the homework. I thought you said you were studying." Ruby shrunk at her teammate Wiess's words. They had made amends earlier that morning. Weiss promising to follow Ruby as her leader and in turn Ruby promising to study. Wiess had been impressed that Ruby had studied the night before but after her paper had been graded and handed back she was wondering if Ruby had been truthful. "Most of these statements are false" She said eying the paper.

"Well Jaune said that those were the answers." Ruby meekly protested.

"Uggh, Jaune's an idiot.' Weiss said not really having any positive interactions with the blonde buffoon "Ruby, you should study with me if you wish to improve"

"Hey, Jaune's nice." Ruby replied defending her friend.

"What about Juane?" asked Pyrrha as she sat down at the lunch table, flanked by Nora and Ren.

"Just talking about Vomit boy and Ruby together." Yang answered hoping that they hadn't heard Weiss bad mouthing their leader.

Nora, who had already begun to attack the mountain of pancakes on her tray, started to choke. Everyone looked at her as she loudly cleared her throat. "Sorry about that" she calmly said before jumping up onto the table and screaming like a mad woman. "You're the girl Jaune's ravishing!"

"What?" Ruby asked everyone looking at Nora.

Nora jumped down from the table and started pacing. "Oh Jaune thought he was being sneaky, but no. Hahahah he wasn't lying. Last night he said he was going to take a shower but he never did."

"Nora." Ren calmly tried to get the attention of his partner.

Nora's stream of consciousness flowed out her mouth, heedless to Ren "But he had a change of clothing with him and he came back in the same clothing except it was all messy."

Ren tried again "Nora"

"And he left for the shower after he received a text. Being smug about it he told me about a hot date and that he was going to be ravishing a girl."

"Nora" Ren said louder.

She stopped pacing. "Yes Renny?"

"You're thinking out loud."

"Oh, sorry." She said nonchalantly before sitting back down and resuming her campaign against her pancakes.

Ruby's face was a mixture of embarrassment, horror, and confusion. She looked at Yang "It's not true" she shouted.

The rest of team RWBY looked at Yang whose face held a weird calm. Although her metal spoon had slowly been bending in half as Nora ranted. "Is that true Ren?"

"Technically yes" Ren hesitantly answered.

The spooned snapped.

Ren was about to clear his leader's name by adding a bit of context to Nora's claim when Jaune sat down next to Yang.

 _Ok this is it, time to talk to Yang. I've got this_. "Hi…" _Yang_ "Ruby." _I'm a coward_. "I can't believe how much you held down last night" he said referring to the boxes of cookies she had eaten.

An uncomfortable silence greeted him. Looking around he saw his team not meeting his eyes, Blake and Wiess eyeing him weirdly, and he was met with a look of pure horror on Ruby's face. He looked directly to his right to see Yang looking at him. _That's weird, since when did Yang have red eyes?_

Two seconds later Jaune found himself flying through the air. He painfully smashed through a window and landed with a sickening crunch on the pavement outside. "Owww, was it something I said?" The wall between him and the lunch room exploded, the dust clearing to reveal a livid Yang and beside her Ruby. "Don't kill him Yang it isn't true." Yang pressed forwards ignoring her little sister, a murderous glint in her eye.

Seeing death approaching Jaune jumped to his feet and ran for his life. _I'm never talking to girls again!_ His terrified mind screamed.


	6. Spilling Coffee

Neo stood in a dark alley; a bored look on her face. Looking down at her scroll she was disappointed to see that it would be a few minutes before Jaune would arrive. She put down the two cases she was carrying and stretched. _Uggh This is sooo boring._ She looked back at her scroll as if it would tell her something else.

"Hey there little girl you know it's dangerous to be out here alone." She turned to see a slimy looking man approaching her with sick intent in his eye. "Come over here and I'll keep you safe." Neo smiled, her hand going to her parasail. _Finally something to do._

Just as the man stepped into her range a sword unexpectedly exploded from his chest. The man looked down with a surprised expression on his face that Neo found priceless before the sword retracted causing him to fall to the ground. Behind him stood Jaune, sword in hand.

 **Spoilsport**. She signed.

Jaune wiped his sword off on the fresh corpse. "Whatever, you would have played with him forever, I'm kinda in a hurry." He sheathed his blade and stepped towards Neo. "Besides you've got me beat by like twenty people on the kill count, gotta take what I can get." A few years ago Jaune would have never considered participating in something so morbid, but among other things he always seemed to find his competitive streak around Neo.

She rolled her mismatched eyes at her coworker's excuse for breaking her new toy. **Whatever**. She signed. She pointed to the two cases on the ground.

He eyed her with a questioning look."Two? I thought you said it would take awhile to get the rest of the stuff."

She pulled out her scroll and typed in a message. His scroll buzzed **. "** Got your weapons and explosives. The rest will be waiting for you at the robbery. **"**

"Thanks Neo, you're the best." She looked away and made a gesture with her hand conveying the message of "oh stop". She changed her hand gesture and messaged to "but please continue saying how awesome I am."

"Really, thank you. You have no idea how embarrassing it is to lose to some of these chumps. I look like a complete idiot there." He continued.

"You are. So that where your black eye came from?" She texted.

"Ummm, no." a flash of yellow entered his mind. "So what have you and Roman been up to?" he asked changing the subject.

"He's still Cinder's bitch. All we do is rob stupid dust stores, it's getting boring." Her new text read.

"I still haven't seen her yet. What does she look anyways?"

Neo started to fake puke. "So that ugly?" she nodded. In truth Neo was more than a bit jealous of their new boss's figure. Seriously, she thought, she would kill to look like that. Not stop eating ice cream, but kill none the less.

"So on the whole robbery thing. Do you have the details?" he asked referring to the heist he was supposed to complete.

She pulled out a file and handed it to him. "So a clothing store that specializes in dust embroidering, I'll scope it out Tuesday and hit it Wednesday. That give you enough time to get the rest of the stuff I need?" he said after eyeing the file. She nodded. "Ok leave it all in a white van across the street from the target building. Also can you pop by my apartment and grab my usual get up?" she gave him a thumbs up.

With that out of the way he grabbed the cases and walked out of the alley with Neo. She held her scroll up to his face as they entered a busy market. "What are you in a hurry for?"

"Just got a message from the headmaster of Beacon when I was headed here, He wants to see me in his office."

She gave him a look that she would never admit was filled with concern.

He met her gaze "If they knew I would already be dead." She was about to show him a message on her scroll when a voice interrupted them.

"Hello Jaune." Pyrrha happily greeted.

"H-hey Pyrrha." Juane stuttered, taken aback by his attractive partner's unexpected entrance. "What are you doing here?" Was she following him?

"We are out of conditioner so I went to pick some up." She answered, smile still on her face.

 _Great going Jaune, supposed to be the leader and you can't even remember to keep the team stocked up. Wait a minute we had a whole bottle this morning. How did we go through a bottle today?_ He glanced at Pyrrha's extremely long red hair. _Guess I'm going to be buying hair products in bulk then._

"So what are you doing here Jaune?" Pyrrha said taking note of Neo "And who is this adorable little girl."

"Well ummmm…you see I…..this is….. ummmm." He mumbled and stuttered for a bit longer, lacking an answer at the moment.

"What did you say Jaune?" the girl asked a bit confused

He took a breath. "Well this is my little cousin, Neo. She's mute so I help her get ice cream on the weekends. We just finished and I'm taking her back to her family's house."

"That's very sweet of you Jaune." Pryyha complimented. "I have a….. thing here…..at…this exact time next week."While Pyrrha was a master fighter, a master lair she was not. "Would you mind if I joined you and your cousin?" She was a bit desperate to make some friends at Beacon. Nora and Ren seemed to have their own thing and she didn't wish to interfere. She feared her social awkwardness and fame would keep her from any other people at school. Jaune on the other hand had not known about her fame and when he had learned of it he just seemed to be more impressed with cereal. Even better he was socially awkward in a way similar to her. To top it all off he was a caring guy if his interactions with his cousin was any indication. She would not give up a chance of friendship with Jaune without a fight.

"Sure" Jaune answered, completely oblivious to the lie.

Neo tugged on his shirt indicating her displeasure at the conversation. "Well I've got to go Pyhrra, I have a meeting with the headmaster." He said as Neo started pulling him away.

"Ok I'll see you at dinner tonight."

"See yah." He shouted as Neo pulled him around the corner.

* * *

"Mr. Arc, do you know why I have called you here?" Ozpin asked sitting at his desk looking at Jaune sitting in a chair across from him.

 _You've found out that I'm a dangerous killer willing to burn this school and everyone in it to the ground to get what I want? No, judging from the lack of guards that's not it._

"I don't know" he answered honestly. Nervousness had plagued him since he was informed of this meeting.

"I see a lot of potential in you Mister Arc, you could go on to do great things." The headmaster took a sip of his coffee "However Beacon does have standards."

Jaune slumped down into his chair a bit.

"You're homework has been described as the work of a middle schooler by some of my colleagues." _That can happen when you drop out of school at a young age to peruse a life of crime._ "As Beacon is a school centered on combat this could be overlooked. Except you barley survived your initiation." _Ouch_ "and you have yet to win a fight in class." Ozpin's hand rested upon a paper on his desk. From the corner of his eye Jaune saw his picture on the paper.

For a moment fear took hold in Jaune's mind. Ozpin was preparing to kick him out. His chances of finding Amber were slipping away from him. What was he going to do?

 _Calm down._ He sat up and met the Headmasters gaze. "I believe I see why you called me here today. I assure you that the next spar in class will be quite different. You see I have been operating with a bit of a handicap, but that has changed." Jaune mind wandered to the case with his weapons in it. "Send anyone against me and I will prevail. That should prove that I belong here." He said the last part with what sounded like iron-clad conviction even though his mind was less sure of the outcome. _Even with my weapons Pyrrha could easily kick my ass, Yang's bout 75/25 in her favor, I figure if Nora used her grenade launcher right, and Ruby…._

Ozpin eyed the student in front of him with curiosity. Originally he was going to offer Jaune a tutor but the young man's proposition mixed with his changed demeanor was intriguing. Everything pointed to another epic defeat for Arc but he was confident in the future. Ozpin suspected arrogance on the young man's part but Arc didn't strike him as the sort.

"We'll see Mister Arc." Ozpin said a bit cryptically.

Jaune grinned. "Yes we will."

* * *

Nora was drawing a picture of her best friend, Ren, when Jaune suddenly burst into their room. A huge smile was on his face. She watched as he walked towards his bed and pulled a case from under it.

"Whatcha doing Juane." While Jaune wasn't icy Nora had never seen him truly happy.

"Just got some new weapons." He answered while in the process of unlocking the case. Nora abandoned her drawing in favor of the prospect of new exciting weapons. Which was really great for Jaune, she considered his old weapons to be lame. A sword and shield, totally boring, and while she would never say it, he really sucked. Hopefully a change of weapons would do him good.

As he put in the combination she tried to imagine what could be in the case; it was too small for any heavy weapons. So that eliminated all the fun options, although all manner of deadly weapons danced through her head, getting more outrageous as the numbers rolled into place. With every correct number Jaune and Nora's excitement grew until the case clicked open.

Nora looked inside. "Wow Juane, I didn't know you knew how to use nun-chucks." She turned to see a very pale Jaune

"I don't."

She didn't hear him as her limited attention fell upon a card in the case. Picking it up, she read it. "Have fun –N"

* * *

"Jaune Arc, you are up" Glynda announced to the class. She watched as the blonde stepped towards the ring, a grim expression on his face. She was aware of his assertion to Ozpin the prior day, and while the headmaster believed that there could be some truth to Jaune Arc's excuse of a handicap for his poor performance she believed he was just an arrogant young man. She wouldn't argue against the headmaster's decision to waste precious time on Arc, but that didn't mean she would let the boy off easily.

Her scroll said that today Arc would face Cardin, the student closest to his abysmal skill level. "You will be facing Miss Nikos" Of course Arc had said he could best anyone.

As the two fighters entered the ring Glynda started a 3 second count down on the screen upon the wall.

3….. Pyrrha took an offensive stance.

2… Jaune stood casually, as if he was taking a casual stroll instead of staring down the best fighter in the school.

1…Ozpin took a sip of his coffee as he watched the fight from a screen in his office.

0…Pyrrha charged

"Stop!" Jaune shouted. Taken aback by the irregularity Pyrrha paused mid charge. "As your leader I order you to give up." Confused Prryha looked over to Glynda for guidance.

"You can't order a combatant Mr. Arc." Glynda responded a bit irritated.

"In that case" Jaune pointed to the rest of his team. "attack Pyrrha." Nora shot up hammer in hand.

"You can't give orders period." Glynda yelled. Nora sat down a bit disappointed.

"In that case I'm sorry Pyrrha. I don't want to hurt you but I'll have to use my semblance now." he pointed dual finger guns in Pyrrha direction.

Glynda shook her head "Mr. Arc semblances are allowed. Have you been not using yours this entire time?"

"Well you see I find it too unfair for the ring as it would instantly allow me to win and that would take away from not just my learning but my classmates." Jaune explained with a serious look on his face.

Pyrrha shuffled a bit, feeling extremely guilty. She wasn't above using her unbalanced powers for victory over her schoolmates. Internally she felt ashamed that she would use her power for victory to save face while Jaune would endure defeat after humiliating defeat to better himself. If only she was as honorable as Jaune Arc.

Glynda face palmed in annoyance to Jaune lie "Just do it Arc."

"Sorry Pyrrha." His finger guns dropped the "hammers".

The ground beneath Pyrrha's feet erupted in an explosion; her aura taking the brunt of the damage, she was ejected from the ring and into the stands. While she had some aura here ejection from the ring was a condition of defeat.

Jaune turned to Glynda. "Guess I win."

* * *

It was two days after his victory in the ring. They had closed combat class for repairs for the week thanks to his stunt. He got a lot of credit his victory, especially defeating the invincible girl. Of course now everyone thought he could blow stuff up on command, instead of the truth. In reality he had broke into the class beforehand and had rigged up some explosives. A little sleight of hand trick had allowed him to position a detonator into his palm; the finger gun thing looking liking a natural enough way to activate his powers. Of course that was all in the past.

Juane looked at the clothing store from inside the van he was now occupying. He'd scoped out the place the day before to find that this time was when the police patrols were farthest and the store was closed. Unfortunately it was five minutes after the store had closed to the public and two employees still remained. Shouldn't be a problem he thought as he moved to the rear of the van to find two backpacks.

 _This better be what I asked for otherwise I'm torching Neo's favorite ice cream parlor._ Opening the first bag he found the lock picking set he needed, the digital decryptor, and at long last his weapons. _Oh I missed you._ Picking his pistol and knife out of the bag he sat them off to the side, leaving the rest in the bag. Moving to the other bag he found his usual working attire.

Stripping off his clothing he slipped into a pair of sturdy black cargo pants and secured it with a belt that had a holster and sheath looped onto it. He flexed his muscles a bit before donning a tight black T-shirt layered over by a matching tactical vest that housed all sorts of nasty surprises. Lacing up some steel toed combat boots he slipped a black balaclava on before donning an identically colored ballistic face mask. Holstering his weapons he slung the backpack housing his equipment onto his back. He stepped towards the exit of the van, his hand pausing on the door latch.

He took a breath. _OK… right now this is standing between me and my goal, all I have to do is this and I'm home free._ He pushed the door up and stepped out into the empty streets.

* * *

Velvet looked at some clothing awkwardly. Coco had said she needed new clothing for the new school year even thought Velvet was fine with her usual get up and school uniform. She looked around from her secluded position at the back of the store. The store was technically closed at this time but Coco had an in with just about every clothing store in Vale. She was supposed to meet Velvet here but she was nowhere to be found. Velvet pulled out her scroll and sent a text to Coco asking her where she was. She figured if Coco didn't show she would just head over and meet up with her other teammates who were at an all-night cafe nearby.

"Ok everyone this is a robbery. Empty out your dust into the bag and you all will live to cry about this later." Velvet perked up at those words shouted from the front of the store. She crouched low behind the clothing racks to avoid being spotted. Someone just robbed the wrong store she thought as she sent a text to her other teammates.

* * *

"Alright put it in." Jaune ordered holding out a bag while one of the employees grabbed some dust crystals from under a stall. So far things were going good; employees were too scared to go for the silent alarm but not so scared enough to break down and stop gathering the dust. He had taken precautions in case this went south but it was looking like this would go down smoothly. A kick to the head ended that hopeful line of thinking.

He staggered back a few steps looking up to see what had hit him. It was a brunette rabbit faunus wielding some kind of bo-staff. "Hop off" internally he winced at how bad his pun was.

Externally Velvet winced at his words, plenty of bullies and bigots had told her the same thing. "Surrender" she ordered hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. At first she had figured this criminal to be run off the mill, but his resilience to her kick proved him to have aura, something criminals rarely had access to.

 _Seriously?_ "No." he brought his pistol to bear and opened fire.

She rushed forwards her bo-staff transforming it into a shield blocking his gunfire. He shifted his aim to her legs but she jumped up. He expected her to fly straight at him so he was unable to stop her when she instead jumped towards a nearby wall. Using her powerful legs to springboard off she switched her weapon to a mace and smashed it into Jaune.

He flew back crashing into a stall, stars danced in front of his eyes. He braced himself for a savage follow up but it never came. He slowly brought himself up to his feet not encountering any resistance from Velvet. She was still standing there, her weapon changing into a sword. "Surrender" she repeated more forcefully. Behind his mask he smiled. Roman once said that honorable huntsmen were the weakest. One honorable enough to not hit an opponent when they were down would definitely care about civilians.

He pointed his gun at the nearby store employees. Winking at the faunus he opened fire. Worry and anger clouded Velvets mind as civilian lives were placed in grave danger. If she had kept her head she would have changed her weapon into something with range but instead she just bum rushed Jaune. As she closed in on him with a predictable charge he swung around and pistol whipped her in the face.

Her aura took most of the blow but for a moment she was vulnerable. Taking advantage of that brief vulnerability he grabbed her by her long ears and painfully introduced her face to his knee. Jaune found that a few introductions were enough to bring her to her knees. Not done he used her ears to smash her head into a nearby stall. He released her ear causing her to slump to the ground. Dazed but not defeated Velvet tried to rise. Not stupid enough to make her mistake he fed her the steel toe of his boot. Her nose turned a sickening angle telling him that her aura had left her.

She raised her arms in an unspoken plea for mercy. During another time he would have felt pity for her and disgust at himself for his actions, but right now he was on mission and she was committing a cardinal sin. She was in his way. He brought his boot down once more causing her to go limp.

He watched as her chest rose and fell confirming her survival. Turning he saw his shots had been true and the employees were still alive. Walking over he picked up his bag full of dust and put it into his backpack. He walked towards the door. "Pleasure doing business with you, might have to come back sometime."

Stepping outside he saw two men in streets. One stood at an imposing seven feet tall, well defined muscle covering his frame and wielding a massive sword. The other had some sort of bladed gauntlets and looked equally as lethal as his taller companion. The only thing Jaune cared about was that they were standing next to the van; his primary means of escape.

"Where is Velvet?" The large one asked.

"Was she the cute one? Key word being was." he asked pointing back towards the shop. Expressions of anger came to the two's faces. Jaune raised his arms "Now before you come over here and wreck me I got a quick questions for you two scary looking guys." He took their silence as a green light to continue. "You guys look like you are pretty well prepared to fight scrawny little me. I figure a lot of pushups, lot of hours training. How prepared do you think you are for this fight?"

The large one answered with anger in his voice. "I have trained years to protect the weak and keep people safe from monsters like you."

Jaune put his hands over his heart. "Monster? That hurts, I consider myself a teacher tonight. Let me introduce you to the concept of economy of time. It took you two hundreds of hours to become the badasses you are now." He depresses the detonator on his vest. "It took me five minutes to rig up this."

The van was consumed in a powerful blast that rocked the street. The two young men were thrown across the street by the concussive blast. _Well looks like I'm walking._

Yatsuhashi brought his head up, his vision blurry and ears ringing, to see his teammate, Fox, not moving; cuts coving his body. Furiously looking around he saw his blade lying just a few short feet away. Finding his legs to be almost impossibly heavy he crawled towards his weapon. He would protect his friends to his last breath. As his hand was just about to clasp the blade a boot forcefully came down on it. Looking up he saw the masked face of his enemy. "And with that lesson class is dismissed." A swift kick to the head sent Yatsuhashi to the land of unconsciousness.

"Man I'm on a roll tonight." Jaune said with a quick fist pump.

"You hurt my team, prepare to die."

He turned around to face the very menacing voice, finding a fashionably dressed girl wearing a beret and dark aviators. He looked her over to see that she appeared to be quite attractive, but more importantly she held a large hand bag instead of any weaponry.

"What are you going to do, smack me with your bag?"

She smirked. "Something like that." Her handbag transformed into a massive minigun.

"Oooh shit." Jaune considered his options. Right now she had a lot more firepower than him. Looking left and right he saw he was too far from any cover that could resist the girl's beast of a weapon. Briefly he considered the smoke grenade he had but rejected it as she would just gun him down before it could be of any use.

"Give up, or don't. I'd much rather you didn't." she said as her finger hovered over the gun's trigger.

"While that's a tempting offer I've got a better one for you beautiful. Let's forget this nasty business, you and me go to this little bar I know; it's got great scotch, we have a good time, head back to your place, and then we see what happens from there." On a mission Jaune really was a different person.

"Not happening" Coco retorted a bit disgusted.

He drew his gun. "Ok babe I'm flexible. We can just call it a night and I'll just go."

Her finger pressed the trigger and the barrel started to spin up.

"Or I can crank a few rounds of into tall, dangerous, and stupid here" he crouched down and grabbing Yatsuhashi by his robe Jaune stuck his gun into the incapacitated hunter's mouth.

The barrel stopped rotating.

"Your call babe, personally I think we should go get some stiff drinks together." Coco was practically red with fury at this point. She internally was conflicted with the dilemma of letting this maniac go or saving her teammate's life. In the end she really only had one option.

"Get out of here." She managed through gritted teeth and blazing rage.

Jaune dropped the smoke grenade. In a few seconds he would be obscured enough to escape into a nearby sewer grate, the Huntress wouldn't dare fire into the cloud for fear of hitting her comrade. Before the smoke consumed him he tossed out on more verbal barb. "Well sorry to run babe but don't worry we can go out some other time."

Coco held her ground as the criminal disappeared from her sight. She dared not rush in blind and become a victim to him, so she waited, finger on the trigger. After the smoke cleared she saw that her friends were still alive, the only thing missing from before the smoke was the elusive criminal. Rushing over to her downed friends she internally swore that she would meet that man again and that it would end very differently.

Atop an adjacent build two figures had been watching the dramatic robbery.

"Not it" said Mercury

"What?" his green haired partner, Emerald, asked.

Cinder had known that this particular store was frequented by Coco Adel a powerful huntress-in-training. This was because Cinder often bought dust embroidered clothing from this store and had seen Coco there from time to time. She had ordered Roman to task the mysterious hit man with this robbery to test both of them. In Roman's case to test if his fear of her outweighed any loyalty he had to men. For Jaune it was to test how he handled a powerful foe although she had no idea an entire team would be present to night.

"Not it." Mercury repeated.

"I know what you said." His partner said with an eye roll. "What do you mean."

"Way I figure it that guy broke my dad a few years ago. It cost me my legs getting that bastard and seeing that guy tonight I figure I don't want to fight him. So when Cinder asks us to fight that guy I'm not it" Even explaining that he was a coward Mercury still managed to maintain an air of cockiness about him

"Try telling that to Cinder." She remarked. Honestly she agreed with her partner's sentiment of wanting to avoid this Jaune guy. He had just torn his way through a team of upper-classmen with a cunning and ruthlessness she could only recall seeing in Cinder. She shuddered a bit at the thought of a male version of her boss.

* * *

Jaune slogged through the sewers of Vale shinning a flashlight along the walls _. Going to need some new boots after this_. They smell of Vale's excrement invaded his senses, eyes watering, liquid shit mashed between his toes, his nose screaming at his brain for mercy, but he soldiered on. This was far from his first trek through the sewers and if he didn't find Amber in a few weeks it wouldn't be his last. This wasn't even the worst place he had been.

A glint in the distance appeared as his beam hit it. He increased his pace to arrive at the glint's location. Arriving he found reflective tape on a ladder to the surface. A smile formed on his face, he had arrived at the rendezvous point.

He opened the grate to find himself behind a public pool changing area. Stepping into it he dropped the stolen dust down, took all of his items out and placed them into a new waiting backpack. Stripping naked he found his favorite soap in a shower. The last time he had been in the sewer he hadn't planned ahead and he trekked through the city smelling rancid. When he had gotten back to his apartment he had found Neo there. She had puked at the smell then proceeded to kick ass.

After a very long and intensive shower he stepped out smelling normal. Walking over to the new backpack he pulled out his usual attire and donned it. _Perfect mission, had great comebacks, looked cool, survived, and remembered everything._ He put his hand into his pockets. As his fingers probed for their target only to find nothing Jaune slumped. _Well, almost everything._

* * *

"Hey get up."

Jaune stirred from his slumber upon the bench in front of the entrance to Beacon's dorms. As his eyes sent signals to his groggy brain it screamed danger to his body. In front of him was the huntress with the minigun from earlier, and she didn't look to be in a good mood. He shot up to his feet and went for his weapons on his belt only to remember that he had put them in his bag.

"What are you doing?" She asked inquiring to the state she found him in and his reaction.

"Sleeping?" Jaune responded unsure how to proceed due her lack of violence.

"I can see that. Why?" a hard edge was present in her voice.

"Well you see I lost my card to access the dorm." _Lost it in an exploding van_. "Please don't bite my head off."

Coco seemed to soften a bit at his remark. It wasn't his fault that she was having a bad night. Just because her entire team was put in the hospital because of her ineptitude didn't give her the right to be an ass. "Sorry." She mumbled

"Something wrong?" he asked knowing the answer.

"You could say that." She hesitated a moment before continued. "I just let my team down because I was an idiot."

"Are they alive?"

"Yes, but-"

"Will they fight again?"

"Yes, but I-"

"Did you put your team interest ahead of yours?"

Coco had so badly wanted to shoot but she couldn't have risked her team. "Yes"

Jaune smiled. "Well I'm pretty new to this leader thing but I'd say you did good."

Coco considered his words. She couldn't find flaw in his statements. Examining him she remembered that he was a first year named Jaune Arc. She remembered laughing her ass off watching him in initiation. He seemed like a pretty dorky guy but hey, he delivered a good pep talk and she needed that right now. That and a very stiff drink.

"Hey, I'm grabbing a drink downtown you want to come." Jaune was a bit surprised at her offer; he never really had done anything like this before.

"Sure." He managed to say without sounding too excited.

Internally Coco half chucked and half eye rolled. This was defiantly the first time he had ever been invited to a bar by a woman before.

Briefly a dark look flashed across Jaune's face. "We can go to this little bar I know; it's got great scotch."

* * *

 **Sorry this took a bit longer, I've just entered college so my updates will be less frequent. Thanks for all the feedback and support.**


	7. Clubs and Bars

As Coco drank some good scotch with a freshman, another bar across town was playing its part in Jaune Arc's life. Instead of the quiet atmosphere Jaune was inhabiting the sound of techno music, loud partiers, and ever changing multicolored lights that somehow covered the dance floor in shadows set a very different tone. To the clubbers all was good; it was fun to lose themselves in the carefree atmosphere where, for a night, they didn't have to worry about life. Even the startling amount of security patrolling the club seemed to be lulled into a sense of boredom as the night had dragged on.

Perhaps if they paid closer attention they might have realized a large man at the bar scanning the room with laser-like focus. They might have noticed when that same man sent a text another man stopped flirting with a drunken woman and walked to intercept the him in the secluded bathroom. Perhaps if security had noticed they would have lived to see the sunrise.

"Dude, she was a blonde bisexual bridesmaid. That's like the unicorn of club girls." The smaller man whined to the other as he tied a bandana around his face.

The other man had already donned his bandana and was standing on a toilet so to reach the tile of the ceiling. Choosing to ignore his partner the larger man proceeded to push back a tile to find a large case hiding above.

"Of course things like that are probably not your thing anyways Locus. I assume your free time is just spent on therapy."

The larger man opened the case to reveal weapons and all manner of illegal items. Tossing an earpiece to his talkative partner he finally acknowledged him. "Felix set your earpiece frequency to J4."

Obeying his partner Felix got serious. "So fill me in on why we are here."

Locus growled. "You didn't read the brief again."

"Hey, I always got you big guy."

Locus huffed annoyance before he started to assemble a large machine gun from the case. "We are here to gain information about our target. This club is owned by the top information broker in town. Unfortunately he works closely with Torchwick." In Locus's mind the initial intelligence they had received on their target was uncomfortablely light. All they had was a codename of Knight, a list of suspected hits, and a brief description from one of Charon's men that amounted to the person was blonde. Not knowing the age, sex, or whereabouts of Knight Locus had figured risking an assault on the night club an acceptable course of action to find their prey.

Felix reached down into the case and pulled out a particular intimidating battle rifle. "You ready?"

Locus slid the last piece of the machine gun into place before racking a round. "Ready."

* * *

"Hey Arc, you a virgin?"

Hearing Coco's questions Jaune violently chocked on his sip of scotch.

After a minute of clearing his airway Jaune looked over at Coco. "W-what?"

Coco coolly sipped her own alcoholic drink. "Have you ever gotten laid?"

"No." he answered suddenly aware of how close Coco was. _Calm down Arc this isn't what you think it is._

Coco slid her shades down enough that her eyes were piercing Jaune's soul. "Want to change that?"

 _Fuck yeah! Ok play it cool._ "Fuck yeah!" _Stupid mouth._

Without words Coco started to take of her shirt. "What are you doing?" he asked. _Geez I not going to jail for public indecency… again._

She gave him a mischievous grin. "The place is empty." Her grin got bigger. "For now."

He frantically looked around to find that she was right. The bar was completely empty, even the bar tender was nowhere to be found. Looking back to Coco he found that she had gotten free of her clothing.

He had a well prepared line to convince her that privacy might be better for them, but seeing Coco his brain took a different turn. _Hello the number you are trying to reach is disconnected right now, please try again later._

He was brought back to reality by the sound of the front door opening. Horror flooded his brain _. I'm going to jail._

Looking to see who entered he found it worse than he could ever imagined. Standing in the doorway was none other than Pyrrha.

"Hi Jaune" She said with an innocent smile and a small wave.

Before his horrified brain could process a response to what was the worse situation he could find himself in the situation got much worse in the form of Yang, who had just stepped into the bar from behind the doorway.

"Way to go Vomit Boy." Yang complimented.

He looked to Coco for some form of assistance in this terrifying situation only to find her demeanor unchanged by the new arrivals. "I texted them." She said the mischievous grin still on her face.

"Thank you for the invite Coco." Pyrrha added politely.

"Hope you're good at multitasking." Yang added with a wink towards Jaune.

 _Holy shit._

His attention was shifted from the situation before him by something tapping his back. Turning he found a smiling Neo holding a video camera.

At that moment Jaune forgot how to breathe.

Suddenly Jaune's entire world changed. Instead of the bar he found himself in a class, and instead of the women of his dreams he found himself face to face with Dr. Oobleck. Reality came back to him, in actuality his night with Coco had been filled with responsible drinking and conversations on being a leader. It was the day after that. He had laid down when he had gotten to class early and had apparently slept though a portion of it.

"Mr. Arc since you feel confident enough to sleep through this lecture I assume you know the answer."

"Uuuum… well you see… the answer is." Jaune looked around the room to see if anything could save him.

Oobleck leaned towards him. "We are waiting Mr. Arc."

 _Ok this is math class, might as well just guess from the infinite possibilities and hope I get lucky._

Jaune straightened up and with all the confidence he could muster, bullshitted. "The answer is four of course."

The teacher raised an eyebrow "Four?"

"I believe it is sir." _It's not._

Oobleck face palmed "Mr. Arc this is not math class. Next time, at least try a bit harder in your lies if you aren't going to pay attention to class."

Jaune was a bit confused. "This isn't math class?" laughter could be heard from the other students.

"No, this is upper-class history."

Looking around he saw the class was filled with unfamiliar faces of upper-classmen, including an amused Coco. _Looks like I fell asleep in the wrong room_. _I should probably head over to math now._ The bell rang signaling the end of the period and the school day. _Or not._

Oobleck turned and walked back to his desk. "Detention for a week."

Dejectedly, Jaune laid his head down on the table as the class left the room. Things weren't going so great for him. Cardin's bullying, topped with his failure to find Amber had dulled his sense of accomplishment of a rare social victory befriending Coco.

Cardin's bullying was an annoyance that had started after his first match against him, but he had hoped it would have stopped after his victory over Pyrrha. His books being slammed on of his hands this morning had ended that line of thinking. Cardin was either too stupid to not antagonize someone who could apparently blow things up with his mind or smart enough to know that explosions couldn't be used with so many people around in the school halls. Jaune could stop him with a vicious beating but he figured that would draw all sorts of unwanted attention.

As for the hunt for Amber he still was optimistic but that was slowly changing by the day. He still needed to break into the last room in the teacher's wing. There were still a few areas of the school he hadn't searched during his nightly janitor excursions, but they were becoming increasingly less likely or more secure. But if he didn't find Amber soon he would need to cut his losses.

"Busy night?" he looked up to see the smiling face of Coco.

"You could say that _._ " _A lot busier than you think._ He stood up from his seat. "So how's the team?"

"Docs say they'll be fine. Velvet got off the worse with a broken nose." Jaune could see the hurt in her eyes behind those glasses. A feeling of guilt briefly bubbled up in his stomach. He didn't usually see the faces of his victim's loved ones. That fact that they were innocent didn't help either.

"I'm glad to hear that." He replied honestly.

Anger flashed across her face. "If I ever get a hold of that guy I'll kill him." she seethed. While she had expressed a similar sentiment a few times at the bar last night it was still enough for Jaune to steel himself and crush his guilt. _I'm playing for keeps, and if a few get in my way and have to get hurt, well that's tough. Besides I've seen how "innocent" Hunters can be._

"Anyways I need you Jaune." Coco said with a grin, her anger vanishing. Hearing this Jaune couldn't help but think back to his recent dream. _No, bad Jaune._ "My team was assigned to show around some new students that transferred here, but since they are still bed ridden I figured you could help."

"Sure." _Kinda my fault anyways_ "When are we meeting them?"

"I already texted them. They should be here any minute" Coco looked to check her phone to see if anything had changed.

A voice like silk was heard from the doorway "Sorry if I'm late."

Looking over Jaune tried to keep his tongue in his head as he saw the newcomer. Before him stood one of the most attractive women he had ever seen. She was the owner of that smooth voice and her appearance matched, with an hour glass figure that her foreign school uniform showed off quite well. As she walked into the classroom he found himself mesmerized by the swing of her hips and soft smile on her face. Jaune had seen too much to be stupid enough to believe in love at first sight but he was sure as hell feeling something.

"No, you're on time." Coco looked over to Jaune. To her embarrassment her new friend was literally drooling. _Damn it Jaune, I know you aren't exactly the best at social situations but at least try to play it cool._ She looked over at the new girl. _Meh, I guess she looks alright and Jaune is a nice guy. I bet I could do Jaune a solid and hook them up_. He had helped her deal with her brief crisis of confidence, it was the least she could do. Besides she did love a good challenge. _I got Velvet into a dress, how hard can this be?_

"Coco I presume." Cinder looked over at Jaune, who still hadn't quite managed to pick his jaw up. "And you are?"

He tried to say his name but a rough faction of his brain had managed to hijack his tongue. Brain and tongue in conflict he utter an unintelligible mix between "Arc, Jaune Arc." And "are you single?" Upon hearing his own failure at speaking he took a deep and embarrassed breath. "I'm Jaune." He finally managed.

Coco resisted the urge to face palm. _Ok, this may be a bit harder than I though._

Internally Cinder was cursing. To her Arc's bizarre reaction could only be attributed to surprise at recognizing her true identity. _How could I have been so foolish? Of course he knows all the players in this race for the Maiden._ Arc was an unknown quantity that forced her to move up her plans of infiltrating Beacon, if only to gain information on him. Cinder had revealed herself to few in Roman's organization so she had hoped that Jaune would be ignorant to her identity. This was a misstep on her part, her test the other night had proven him to be a smooth operator, underestimating him would surely prove lethal.

A sultry smile graced her face. "It's a pleasure to meet you Jaune." She took care to emphasize pleasure. Arc could be a great enemy but she was enticed by the idea of such a man under her.

Before Jaune could say anything to embarrass himself Coco saved the day. "I was expecting a team."

"Oh yes. They are busy unpacking" What were henchmen for if not lifting heavy things, such as dorm beds? "I'll tell them what they need to know.

To say Cinder got a feeling of intoxicating power using other would be an understatement. She loved it, being in control, the more powerful the victim the better. She found the trick was finding what people want and what they feared. She wondered what drove Arc. Was he driven by a lust for power, or something else?

"So ummm… what is your name?" Jaune managed.

 _Oh, playing coy are we Arc. You must know._ "Cinder Fall"

Briefly Arc hesitated at the name as it belonged to the woman controlling his boss. The feeling passed as he thought about it though. _Neo said she was ugly, and this Cinder is defiantly hot. Weird coincidence though._

"I hope you can show me around Jaune this school is so confusing to a girl like me." Jaune could barely contain his excitement.

"Ok, so we first need to go see the….." he looked over to Coco to see her mouthing the word cafeteria. "cafeteria. It's this way."

Internally Jaune was wondering how he could get with Cinder, ignoring the facts of his profession, his limited time left in Beacon, and the fact that his only primary contact with a woman was Neo's foot forcibly connecting with his face. While he knew this all made it impossible to actually pursue Cinder he could dream.

Internally Cinder was wondering how she could control or destroy the assassin next to her. She figured Arc as a man of focus not to be easily swayed by her feminine charms. Knowing what his desires were would be key to her success. She would need to take on the dangerous task of spending time with him to further her understanding.

Internally Coco was wondering how she would tell Jaune they were headed the wrong way.

* * *

To say that the Junior was having a bad night would be like saying the sun was warm. In other words, a really big fuck'n understatement.

Currently blood was soaking the paperwork on his desk, his blood to be more exact. It was coming from his nose that upon being slammed into the desk had been crushed. His face was still firmly upon the desk, held in place by a large hand belonging to a man wielding a machine gun, which was currently pointed at his head.

This wasn't even the worse thing happening tonight. From the corner of his eye Junior could see the other assailant pinning the last living member of his security against a wall. Melanie and her twin had fought hard but they, like the rest of his men were outmatched and Miltia had caught a round to the head.

Against Felix's grip Melanie was futility struggling. She was driven by a rage to avenge her twin, to her everything was numb but she was aware of her assailant's taunt the made her struggle harder. Felix just grinned and taunted her some more, knowing that he could kill her at any point.

"We need something." Locus uttered in a low and dangerous tone.

"Fuck you."

A savage grin grew on Felix's face "I don't think you are getting the point of this." He took out a combat knife and slowly brought it to Melanie stomach. "Maybe she will." He slowly shoved the blade through her skin, blood welling up. Tears welled up in his victim's eyes as he continued to push.

Melanie gritted her teeth. She would not give these bastards the satisfaction of screaming.

"Stop!" Desperation and pain was dripping from Junior's voice. "What do you want?"

Felix stopped pushing, his blade an inch into Melanie. "You see we want to kill someone. Problem is we don't know what they look like. We do know he or she is blonde, works for Roman, and is known as Knight. But a smart guy like you is bound to know him, so spill or she does."

Junior looked at his options, and right now there weren't any good ones for him. Betray Roman and either get killed by Neo or Jaune, or he and Melanie get tortured to death by these psychos. Seeing his hesitation Felix twisted his blade. It was too much for Melanie and she let slip an ear piercing scream.

"Fuck!" Junior decided what to do. "In the safe under my desk. The code is 4593, the first file is the one you want!"

"Thanks." Felix pulled out his blade. Junior relaxed a bit knowing that Melanie was safe. He was then over whelmed by horror as Felix drew his blade across her throat in one lightning quick movement.

"No!" Junior didn't have long watching Melanie try to stop the torrent of blood coming from her throat, her horror stricken eyes falling upon him. His brain was splattered across the desk as Locus pulled the trigger.

Ten minutes later the night club was burning to the ground as Felix and Locus drove back to their safe house.

"Never would have figured." Felix said absent mindedly as he read the stolen file.

"What?" Locus asked a bit curiously. He hadn't had a chance to see the file.

"Didn't figure Knight was a smoking babe." Closing the file, he showed it to Locus.

Glancing from the road Locus saw the file labeled Yang Xiao Long with a picture of the blonde. "Wouldn't have figured either."

* * *

 **This kinda sums up the first act of the story. The scene has been set. Moving forward this story is going to follow the first few seasons a bit more closely and develop Jaune's relationship with the Beacon crew. Some people might have some issues with me adding OCs (well, technically Red vs. Blue characters) but don't worry too much. They're not going to take over or something like that. And this isn't going to turn into a cross over. I originally intended them as minor antagonists for some tension down the road, and feedback supports this over flushing them out more as characters. Also still open to suggestions on pairings and semblances.**


	8. Hanging Out

Pyrrha was excited if a bit nervous. Today was the day that Jaune took his adorable cousin to get ice cream. The week before she had went out on a limb asking Jaune if she could join him on his next outing. It wasn't really like her to be so socially forward but she hadn't really managed to make any real connections and she was getting a bit desperate. Sure she had met a lot of new people, but her team were all kind of distant and their sister team, RWBY, only hung out because of Jaune and Ruby's friendship. The two hung out pretty regularly after class as Pyrrha understood it. That was the reason she had took a chance on asking Jaune to hang out today. He seemed outgoing if a little bit awkward. Of course that wasn't the only reason. Jaune didn't know about her statues and when he had learned he hadn't really asked about it or even cared. And he was an honorable warrior in her eyes. In fact she considered him way better than her as a Hunter. He was humble enough to accept defeat in the ring to sharpen not only his skills but to be fair to others. He even warned her before he used his semblance. What really got her excited though was the fact that he could defeat her, something that she hadn't found anyone else in the school or ring capable of. He seemed to embody everything that Pyrrha thought was a Hunter. It also didn't hurt that he was cute.

Currently she was sitting on a bench near the Bullhead transport deck overlooking the city below. Looking at her scroll she saw it was 30 minutes after she had thought they were meeting. Now that she thought about it she probably should have confirmed with him that they were even meeting. Jaune yelling to her while being dragged away by his cousin wasn't exactly a sure thing now that she thought about. Now that she thought about it she could be making a total fool of herself, sitting on this bench with no one coming. Franticly she pulled up her team leader's number and texted him. She caught herself before she sent a text confirming her desperation yet that still managed to be conveyed in a ridged manner. She didn't want to come off as weird. _Oh dear, I'm not very good at this._

A few more tries at a casual text and Pyrrha finally settled on something. _I hope I'm not disturbing anything with his cousin._ She nervously tapped the send option.

* * *

Jaune could have used an interruption a minute sooner. **Damn it Neo stop sending me pictures of that stuff. It's disgusting.** _Stupid Neo, going to have to clean my eyes._ Jaune's plan for the day was to lay low until he knew the staff was away from their rooms and then finally use his new lock pick to get into the last room. It was his best and last chance to find Amber. He'd narrowed it down to that last room. The only feasible place she could be according to the architectural plan. Today could be his last day of Beacon. Today could be the last day of his search. He was locked away in his room to calm his nerves. It was empty with Nora and Ren working out and he assumed Pyrrha was doing the same.

His scroll buzzed. Expecting another text from Neo he was surprised to see that it was from Pyrrha. **We hanging?**

 _Oh crap I totally forgot._ He slumped back into his bed and face palmed. _Hot girl asks me to hang and I forget. Yeah typical Jaune moment._ He typed in a text confirming his incompetence before he caught himself. _She doesn't need to know, I can lie._ **Already at the fountain. Waiting on you.** A pang of guilt reared up in Jaune. _Can I really lie? This is wrong._ Reality then occurred to Jaune. _I was shooting at innocent bystanders a few days ago_. With his brief struggle with morality concluded he sent the text. Problem solved, he thought, until a question came across in his mind. _How am going to get to the fountain first?_ He shot out of his bed with a speed that could be mistaken for a semblance.

* * *

Soaked in sweat Ren and Nora were crossing the Bullhead platform on their way back to the dorm. Each was exhausted but any onlooker wouldn't have guessed that with Ren cool as ever and Nora skipping alongside him.

"Whelp that was a fun workout Renny."

"Yes, you should try that one move more." He replied in his signature calm tone

"ohhh like that did you?" Nora said with sly grin.

"It was certainly hard for me to handle." The calmness of his voice didn't change.

Intending to continue the conversation Nora was distracted by a streak of red out of the corner of her eye. Turning to see what it was to sate the curiosity that controlled most of her decisions she saw her teammate, Phyrra, sitting on a nearby bench.

"Hey!" Nora screams grabbing the Spartans attention.

"Why hello there." Phyrra said with a small wave.

"What you dooooing?" Nora asked in a sign-a-song voice.

"Well I" Phyrra felt her scroll get a text and immediately looked at it.

Nora took note of her teammates uncharacteristic nervousness "Something important?"

Without answering Phyrra stood up and looked around the transport deck with a determination that startled Nora. Seeing a bullhead starting to take off she made a dead sprint for the transport. Just as the wheels started to leave the ground and the door shut the red head jumped into the small opening allowing her into the bullhead.

Very confused Nora looked over to her partner "Ummm did I miss something Ren?"

Before he could answer his scroll rang. "Hello?" he said picking up the call. A moment passed. "A landing strategy? Well you put all your Aura into the point of impact and do whatever you can to slow the descent. Why do you ask? Hello? Hello?" a confused look had come across Ren's face.

A streak of blonde shot past the pair. "Thanks Ren!" Jaune yelled as he jumped off the edge of the platform.

"Ummm…." Ren looked over to Nora in the hopes that maybe she knew what was happening. Instead he found that she had somehow materialized a detective hat and broken magnifier glass.

"Nora is on the case." She said with determination and a half insane grin on her face.

Ren rubbed his temples already feeling a migraine coming on.

* * *

Vale, like all modern cities, had a law that made smoking indoors illegal except for smoke lounges. That was why Roman had purchased a lounge for himself. While it provided a bit of revenue it gave him a place to have private meetings and smoke. While he regularly laughed at the law and indirectly controlled much of the city it wouldn't do to be arrested for absentmindedly smoking in the wrong place.

The reason he found himself in the lounge two years before Jaune infiltrated Beacon was because someone had requested a meeting with the king of Vale, someone who knew to pay tribute. Now that in itself was unusual. Someone had mailed him a box full of currency and letter with a scroll number and a very wordy request to meet. Typically if someone wanted to hire Roman they would find some low level thug or drop a hint to Junior but to find one of his safe houses and send a request to meet spoke of a level of sophistication. It wasn't a foreign crime ring; they had their own ways of contacting him for diplomatic reasons. At first he had thought it was the police trying set up a sting, but his contacts in the department had shot down that possibility. There was no reason than to not agree to the meet. That wasn't to say that this all didn't make him a bit nervous.

As he lit a cigar his scroll went off. "What?"

The guard manning the front room answered. "He's here."

Roman took a drag off his cigar. "Send him in."

The door to lounge opened to reveal a skinny well dressed man who's most striking feature was a large moustache that adorned his face. At least it was the most striking feature to most, but what detail struck Roman were the man's eyes. They were cruel eyes that hinted at malice and an intelligence that had destroyed lesser men. They were the same eyes Roman saw in the mirror every morning.

The newcomer spoke "Mr. Roman I'm pleased to make your acquaintance." His voiced held a foreign accent that was associated with Atlas.

Roman leaned forward. "You are mistaken. I don't know you, so we haven't been acquainted."

"My apologies, you are right. My name is Mr. Watts."Roman was impressed. Most people in power would ignore or at least sneer at his verbal barb. Watts acted submissive and apologized but the eyes and the man's almost arrogant gate would have Roman believe him to be the kind of man to run things. To Roman this meant that the man was either incredibly manipulative down to the minutest detail or worked for someone of even higher standing, either theory just as possible as the other.

With a hand wave and an eye roll Roman gestured for the man to sit "Anyways say what you paid me to hear."

Taking a seat Watts reached into his coat. Romans hand tightened around his cane ready for an attack only to relax as a picture was produced. Watts reached over and placed the photo on the table between them. Glance down at it Roman looked up and met Watt's gaze with a raised eyebrow. "Vale First National Bank."

"I want you to pick something up inside."

Roman took another drag off his cigar. "Pick up something from the most secure bank in the country. Twenty stores of security and various vaults which have never been successfully robbed even after no less than thirty attempts on it ranging snatch and grabs to a heist involving a tank."

A smug grin formed on Watt's face "Are you saying it's too much for you?"

"What do you want, when do you want it, and most importantly," Roman matched Watt's grin. "what do I get in return?"

Watts pulled out a check and laid it next to the photo. Roman eyed the zeros on the piece of paper "That'll work."

"You will retrieve a file in vault thirteen. The file will be marked under the title Maidens. A condition of our arrangement is you are not to look inside the file under any circumstance. Do we have a deal?"

Roman leaned forward in his chair, his grin turning into a devious smile. "We have a deal."

* * *

"This is really nice Jaune." Pyrrha had so far enjoyed a nice movie with Jaune and currently found herself sitting across from him in a coffee shop.

"Glad you enjoyed it." He said with a suave smile that betrayed the fact that he had picked the movie to steady his nerves. Unbeknownst to him Pyrrha had enjoyed the movie for the same reason. "So what do you think of Beacon so far?"

"I certainly believe that it will make me a better huntress. I think I have a great team." Her eyes nervously fell to her coffee. "I'm glad we have the best hunter in the school on our team."

Jaune shrugged "I certainly think Ren's pretty good." Jaune could appreciate someone that could keep their cool under any circumstance.

She looked up from her coffee "That's not what I meant."

"Oh, I thought you said hunter. I'm certainly a lucky leader to have you on my team."

Pyrrha was screaming internally. She couldn't have him thinking her some arrogant huntress that needed to remind everyone of her superiority. "No Jaune, you are the best hunter in our class."

Jaune was taken aback by his partner's claim. "Why would you say that? I can barely fight in class."

Pyrrha giggled at her partner's surprise. "Jaune, you beat me. Remember?"

"Just a dirty tick. Besides, after putting the ring out of commission for the week Glynda said I can't use explosives in class." His eyes fell to the table. Jaune felt a hand placed on his own. Surprised by Pyrrha he looked up to see a serious expression on her face.

"Don't sell yourself short you are an honorable person" Her words and the conviction behind them caused a terrible numb feeling in Jaune.

* * *

"Did you have a good birthday?" A suited man asked to his teenage daughter as they walked through the streets.

With adoration in her voice the cute girl answered. "Yes father." And why not adore her father? He worked hard to make sure her and her mother where taken care of. Not that she knew what her father did for a living.

Behind a wall atop a three story building Jaune scoped in on the man's center of mass. The red mass lined up with his recital. Squeezing the trigger a large caliber bullet, more close to a shell in size, effortlessly went through the wall that concealed Jaune then in less a fraction of a second later destroyed the father's chest. Continuing its trajectory the round smashed into the pavement sending cement shrapnel flying into the daughter's buttocks.

The scream the poor girl unleashed was a mixture of the worst pain a human could experience, one that would haunt the first responders for all their years. But as Jaune walked away he bearly registered the noise. It was a sound he had become accustom to.

* * *

Prryha continued her praise, not noticing the increasingly pale face of Jaune. The only thing changing was a smile gracing her angelic face. "You care about all the students succeeding regardless of glory for yourself. You genuinely care about helping people."

* * *

"Please stop." A young woman pitifully begged more to herself than anyone else.

This only fueled Jaune's rage as he squeezed the neck of the officer below him. Upon the man's dress uniform a name plate read Bradley. Outside the room the sound of a party drowns out any noise that could alert help. In his home, in his room that held decorations that spoke of a life time of distinguished service, with the woman he intended to take to his bed beside him Bradley meet his end, strangled to death by an assassin's gorrote.

* * *

"That's why you're the best hunter Jaune. I wish I had that." Pyrrha mercifully finished talking. To Jaune her hand that was squeezing his had become as cold as the corpses he made.

Jaune shot up from his seat spilling his drink. "I need to go."

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha's voice was a mixture of concern and nervousness.

"I feel sick" Jaune answered, making a beeline for the exit.

"Did I do something wrong?" Pyrrha asked desperate to help Juane and fix her wrong.

"I feel sick. It's my fault. I'm sorry." Jaune didn't stop as he walked out the door. He needed to get away. _How could someone think that about me? I'm an animal._ He had seen it in her eyes. She really believed what she had said. A huntress like her so pure in intent, someone who he knew would give her life in the defense of humanity, looked up at him and saw her better. It really did make him feel sick.

As he reached the Bullhead transport he noticed that Pyrrha was still following him, a look of concern and hurt on her face. He didn't know why but that made him fell even worse. He didn't know why all of this churned his guts.

Internally Pyrrha was struggling. While Jaune certainly looked sick it seemed like he had went from being fun and happy to acting if had seen a ghost. And given her social skills Pyrrha came to the conclusion that her leader's state was her fault. But as they rode the bullhead to Beacon, Juane finally puking along the way, she decided that she would just make it worse. So she stayed silent.

* * *

Jaune wiped the sweat from his brow with his janitor cap. He needed to leave Beacon. Things were getting too real. Worse, he was getting stupid, going out with a girl. How did he think this was going to end? Pyrrha wasn't even the worst of it. He was making friends, like Ruby who he was hanging out with regularly. In his mind he had always figured that he wouldn't have the social grace to connect with anyone so what was the harm in trying.

That wasn't the only reason for his nervousness. He was unlocking the last door. The last place Amber could be hiding, and hopefully the end of his search. He would be lying if he said that his search hadn't weighted heavily on him. In his darker hours he sometimes wondered what his life would have been like if he hadn't undertaken his task. In the end he always buried these thoughts. _Probably would have ended up being some farmer anyways._

Turning his lock pick into position a jolt of energy shot through him. Pushing open the door his hope died. The room was empty, the only thing inside where spider webs. It was a surplus room. Amber wasn't here.

 _Fuck._


	9. Playing Games

"Hey Ruby" Jaune sighed as he slumped into his seat in front of her, just in time for their usual study/goof-off night outing in the empty cafeteria. He had just checked that last room and had finished his search of the last room in Beacon. All his energy drained at his failure to find Amber and a weird sense of discontentment at his upcoming withdrawal from Beacon. _Well back to the old grind I suppose._

"That bummed about Port's test tomorrow?" She asked taking note of friend's obvious state.

He further slumped into his seat with a pitiful groan.

"You forgot."

He sat up "As a matter of fact….." _pause for dramatic effect_ "I didn't"

"What's it over?" she challenged.

 _Damn_ "Math?"

"You're such a bad liar Jaune." She giggled "You'd be a terrible criminal"

He gasped "No way I'd be a great criminal, thank you very much." Cool friend or not Ruby wasn't allowed to insult his criminal prowess. He was a master assassin, thief extraordinaire, and an amazing criminal.

"I just watched you struggle with the cafeteria doors" she said with a flat expression.

"They really should label which door to pull on."

Her flat expression remained as her eyebrow raised "A door which you have gone through multiple times."

"Well as a master criminal my mind is often occupied by my intense ponderings regarding my extremely personal and mysterious quest which drives my criminal ambitions."

"Well if you're a criminal I'm the best one." She asserted with puff of her chest

He eyed her skeptically "How so?"

"I beat Roman."

 _That…that was an excellent point._ A bit too excellent, devolving into terrifying place where he'd be working for a cookie addicted child. Not too far off from Neo actually, just less inclined towards violence. He eyed her massive weapon on her back that he'd watched her caress a few time. _Ok, probably slightly less inclined towards violence._

"Ok you win. You're an evil criminal that I most train hard to stop for the forces of good as the paragon of virtue that I am."

"I'm not evil" she whined.

"Ruby, you're like straight nightmare fuel. Every horror movie with a little girl as the monster is terrifying. Just imaging it, our hero hears something in the dark mansion. Turning his flashlight he see a deathly pale girl were one shouldn't be, her ghostly completion amplified by her blood red cloak. The rest of her covered in pitch black cloths that blend into the night. Then boom. She's gone with just the smell of dead roses left behind, an unearthly sweetness in the house. Our hero frantically looks around only hearing something moving from one place to another, too fast to be any girl. Then he sees her just a second before she cuts him in two with a massive scythe, his face caught in an eternal look of horror."

"I'm not scary!" she yelled. Launching her pencil at him to distract from her blushing as her friend had just described her scent. Just normal friend thing right there.

The pencil ricocheting off his forehead he laughed. "I suppose not, your too cute Ruby."

Ahhhhh this was not helping her blushing. She needed to steer this to a safer topic. "Can you help me lose my V-card?" Jaune stopped laughing. In fact it was like Jaune was looking at the nightmare version of her he had just described "Ummmmm… You ok there Jaune?"

Jaune snapped back to a normal demeanor "What was that Ruby? I think I heard you wrong."

"I would like your help getting rid of my V-card." Ruby was getting a bit worried it looked like Jaune might be having a heart attack now. "I got a V-card for my birthday this summer. You know, like a gift card for Basenight? The battle royal game." To Ruby it looked like Jaune had just been told he didn't have a terminal illness.

"Oh, yeah. I can do that. That is a thing I can do. Nothing moral questionable about that." He replied a bit shaken. "Wait don't you have a ybox 2 or another game console? Why do you need my help?"

"Not in our dorm and Nora told me you have an apartment in town so I figured you'd have a console. And we have this weekend off so maybe you could help me get rid of this v-card. If that's ok with you of course." She asked ending her suggestion a bit more nervously than when she started. "totally fine if you don't wa-"

"Yes." Jaune was just happy at this suddenly much less illegal suggestion that didn't make his brain freak out or have his eye throb thinking of what Yang would do to him. _Wait, shit, I can't do this my apartment is littered with weapons, cash, and a lot of illegal shit. I can't take Ruby over._ Just before he could properly start freaking out about this new dilemma the solution dawned on him. _I have a perpetual and vicious circle of criminal life to get back to now. It's Monday now so all I have to do is disappear Friday and that will give me two days before the school notices I'm gone and I won't have to show Ruby evidence of my horrible crimes, it's a win win here._ At this another great idea hit him _. I have nothing to lose at the school now. I can do all the crazy shit I wanna do without repercussion._ A grin formed on his face. _That's right Beacon; look out, badass Jaune with zero fucks just showed up._

"Your ass is mine Arc." Cardin boasted, palming his mace in an intimidating manner.

'Gay" Jaune deadpanned. _I'm so done with this bullshit combat class. No tactics, no variables, just two idiots wailing on each other._

Enraged Cardin took a step towards him in the ring "I'm going to kill your runt ass!"

Causally stretching he ignored the bigger boy's gesturing. "Lotta focus on my but Cardin. I mean I'm not judging but just saying, not interested." Turning away and ignoring whatever asinine response Cardin retorted with he adjusted his school uniform. They were both in the ring prepared for the first fight of combat class sense he blew it up. As per normal Cardin was in full plate and swinging his mace in preparation for the start of the bout in stark contrast to Jaune who was still in his uniform. Goodwitch hadn't protested and honestly Jaune had stayed up late so he wasn't really feeling the whole changing thing. He was lazing this fight so hard he didn't even bring his stupid sword or god-awful shield.

In the stands Jaune's unusual state of dress wasn't going unnoticed. "What's he doing" Weiss wondered aloud.

"Not usually this curious Weiss. See something you like?" Yang teased. "Typically stalking Jaune is Blake's job."

"What?" Blake asked, pulled from her rapt attention of the upcoming fight. "I'm not stalking anyone." She protested.

"Sure, tall, blond, and dorky is just the only person you put your book down to watch."

"What's that?" Nora asked, leaning over to team RWBY with a note pad and detective hat she taken to wearing at odd moments. In response to everyone's questioning looks Ren just shrugged.

"It's not like that" Blake sighed "It's just that something is… off about Jaune. He uses his sword like a baseball bat and is terrible with a shield. And does anyone else remember how he spent all of initiation running away from Grimm?" She had her own theory's on Jaunes unusual state but telling her team that he looked too much like an anti-fauns thug that beat her up years ago wasn't exactly something she wanted to share with some people she just meet a few weeks ago. Also Jaune just seems like too much of a massive dork. She had always imagined her assailant as someone like Adam; driven and ruthless. Last Monday she had seen him trip over himself and fall down a flight of stairs, screaming like a girl.

"He wasn't running. Jaune was just getting a better position." Ruby piped up to defend her friend.

"Ruby, he has a sword." Weiss deadpanned.

"Ummm… a better position to see the Grimm?" she managed weakly. The face Weiss made in response said she clearly doubted that possibility.

"Of course he was." Pyrrha cheerily added. "He used that knowledge to make a plan and lead the team to victory."

"I don't know if screaming "Oh shit kill that thing" is really a plan." Ren added quietly.

"Sshhhh. The match is starting" Pyrrha commanded ignoring Ren's logic. No one was really going to question the girl who ripped entire teams apart and was making "GO JAUNE" signs at night for the two teams. Pyrrha was one of the sweetest person they knew but also up there in terrifying.

Just as she said a count down from ten had began on the fight screen. Cardin adopted an aggressive stance ready to charge as he usually did. Jaune just lazily put his hands in his pockets. "He does know Miss Goodwitch band his semblance, right?" Yang questioned.

"Yes his explosives were a danger to the class room and overpowered in the ring." Weiss added causing Nora and Pyrrha to shift uncomfortably.

5…

4…

"I'll take him to the infirmary this time guys." Ruby volunteered.

1…

The buzzer went off, clearing Cardin for his mad charge, roaring in rage along the way. Jaune however was apparently checking something on his scroll now.

"You may need some help Rubes." Yang offered fully prepared to drag an unconscious dork while Ruby marginally helped lift a load heavier than her. At this point it was getting to be a routine. Yang suspected Ruby was just thrilled to be playing nurse with her "just friend" as she put it.

Halfway to murdering Jaune, Cardin viciously grinned sensing an easy win. Looking up from his scroll finally, Jaune pulled something out of his pocket. He'd gotten it from a gas station near the school awhile ago. Flipping the safety off he aimed and fired. His aim true the spray of mace hit Cardin in the eyes.

"AHHHHH!" Cardin screamed dropping his mace to cover his burning eyes. Blinded in his charge he went head first into a lazy cloth-line from Jaune, leaving him a screaming wreck on the ground.

"So, I win?" Jaune asked, going back to his scroll.

"His Aura is still in the green" Goodwitch answered, if she found anything unusual about this it didn't show.

"Fine." He sighed. Walking over he picked up Cardin's mace. Palming it he tested the weight. "Hmmmm, guess my mace was better."

Stepping next to Cardin, who was still rolling on the ground but trying to recover, he bent down a bit and lined up the mace like a golf club. "FORE!" he declared with a swing.

A collective "Ewww." was let out by the class, every male in the room recoiling and unintentionally moving their hand to cover their family jewels.

"Ok so now I win" Jaune smiled.

"High Jaune." Cinder greeted with a smile as she walked by the team's table in the cafeteria

"H-h –iGH." Jaune managed to choked out a few seconds after she was out of range.

"Smooth lover boy." Yang teased.

"Hey not my fault she keeps sneaking up on me. I was just surprised, that's all."

She smirked. "Surprised woman talk to you?"

"No." _Yes_

"Who is she Jaune?" Pyrrha asked totally out of ideal curiosity. Nora readied a notebook for some reason unknown to Jaune and the teams.

He shrugged "Some exchange student that I was showing around."

"Is that why you two where in the boiler room?" Bake snipped.

"I got lost." _Really lost. I've been studying maps of this place for months and the second I see some tits I can't even figure out my left from my right. I really need to chill out._

"How'd you know Jaune was down in the boiler room Blake?" Yang asked. And back to her book Blake went. No one was safe from the teasing of the buxom blond, _no one_ , she manically laughed in her head.

'So that was a very direct way of winning the spar today.' Ren commented.

"Eh, wasn't really feeling the whole fighting thing today." He replied nonchalantly.

"I thought that was freakin awesome Jaune." Ruby exclaimed. "You where all like mister cool and Cardin was all like passed out."

His cheeks reddened a bit at the praise. "It was really nothing."

"Oooh, Vomit Boy has been holding out." Yang playfully continued, her voice full of her trademark mockery. "You going to show us what you can do?" She added with a wink and a smile.

"I'll be sure to show you what I can do Yang." He said with a wink.

The rest of the table stopped eating at their friend's uncharacteristic comment. Not Yang, she didn't miss a beat. This was her game. "Any time Jauney, just try not to get sick on me." Her verbal victory assured, she resumed eating.

 _"Just ignore the super hot girl's barbs Jaune" she means nothing by it_. "A little shoulder angle version of himself cautioned. Looking over he saw the devil version. " _Take no prisoners"_. It deadpanned.

"Hey Ruby. When do you want me to take your V-card tonight at your place or my apartment this weekend?" He oh so innocently asked. And his smile was because he was talking to his friend, not because Yang was now choking on her lunch. The rest of the table was looking at the unfolding scene with a mixture of curiosity and horror.

"Your place. That way we can mess around all day." She answered happily, eager to leave the weird conversation of her best friend and sister.

Jaune looked back to Yang to shoot a victorious smirk. However Yang had moved to his side of the table. And had somehow put in red contacts. And she was on fire. Looking down he also saw that she had put a fork through his hand.

 _Oh_.

" _Should have listened_ " his shoulder angle chided.

Across the school Coco was talking to her teammate, Fox. "I think we should pull in some more people to hunt that monster."

"Like who?" Fox asked.

"Have you heard of a first year named Jaune Arc?"

"No I don't think I have." He responded.

A shrill and girly scream was heard from afar and, unbeknownst to Fox, the first he heard of Jaune Arc.

 **So, back to writing after a very long break. Some of you may have notice that a chapter was deleted. Honestly it sucked and detracted from the overall story. This is part of a larger effort to clean up this story a bit. To do this I would like to better understand what you do and don't like about this story and perhaps how you want this story to go a bit. I'll be updating more frequently too, so hope you enjoy.**


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